HACK THE PLANET
Dec 29, 2020
4 minutes
Alex Spencer
Microsoft Flight Simulator’s version of Earth is a marvel. Satellite data from Bing Maps (someone’s got to use it) interpreted by Microsoft’s Azure AI platform creates an approximation of our planet, all 510.1 million square kilometers of it. The result is a feat of engineering to rival the real-life aircraft you fly over it—an evolutionary leap from Google Earth, exactly the world tourism simulator we need right now. Except when it’s not.
Drop beneath the clouds, and you may notice the generic office buildings that replaced iconic landmarks such as the Washington Monument and Buckingham Palace. Or the Brazilian airfield swallowed by
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