Original story

Address at World’s Première 20.2.2012

SatWeb virtual world complete and opened

Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a very great honour for me to welcome you here on behalf of SatWeb, to attend an occasion that we have described not as a “world première”, but as the “première of a world”. Geodesists from 68 countries have worked tirelessly alongside satellite experts and specialists from countless other fields in order to make this an event worthy of its name.

What we are celebrating this evening is the climax to a logical sequence of events that was set in motion in the Finnish capital Helsinki some 16 years ago. From those first hesitant steps in Virtual Helsinki, the communications networks and precise computer models have spread outwards and brought us to the threshold of a great moment - our entire world has become one enormous virtual meeting-place. In recent years the tools have developed to such an extent that we think nothing of video robots travelling to the four corners of the earth by all kinds of transport, feeding data into the model that represents the virtual world. We take it for granted that thousands of low-orbit satellites constantly patrol the atmosphere, filming our planet and providing information on abrupt changes in weather, even supplying us with much-needed data on sparsely populated or uninhabited areas.

I am sure we all recognize the astonishing changes that virtual travel has brought to our daily lives. People all over the globe can meet face-to-face. Despite their obvious shortcomings, automatic translators and Babelhelmets help people to exchange ideas. Friendship across frontiers has ceased to be a political slogan and has become a reality for increasing millions of people.

Amidst the grim headlines of hunger, natural disaster and racial conflict, there is a warm, comforting ray of light to be had from the hopeful trend that virtual travel carries with it. Millions of people from countries north, south , east, and west are voluntarily coming together to help each other to learn something new. Thanks to the dense network of satellites, experts can resolve problems in the most remote areas of the world at far less cost than in the past.

Each and every one of us can transfer ourselves, almost at the speed of thought, to any corner of the globe we choose. With the completion last year of South America and South-East Asia, all the great metropolises have now been recreated in detailed virtual models. Even the mysterious continent of Antarctic seems to have been filmed down to the last snow-crystal - even if we know that in uninhabited areas accuracy is just an illusion created by the computer.

Naturally we are particularly proud of SatWeb’s latest achievement, which we dare to call the première of a new world. Now anyone, anywhere can request an image of any part of the planet he chooses, and we will supply it as soon as our nearest satellite passes over the coordinates. Previously images of such clarity and detail were available only for military and intelligence use, but the time has now come for extremely high-resolution satellite pictures to enter the public domain.

The most sceptical among us might at this point wish to ask - how is the data security of the individual to be protected in such a world? I shall reply to them: insecurity begins from secrets. Under a clear and open sky, we can now set about making life increasingly safe for humankind. Of course, where necessary we wish to protect the individual’s privacy. I say this sincerely, although it is quite apparent that most people are delighted that disaster areas, criminal activities, and even deserts and wildernesses can now be monitored with added efficiency. If they so wish, we can erase from all pictures given to our customers any and all registered persons and vehicles equipped with satellite positioning devices.

I think it would be fair to say that today the entire world is a kind of stage, and we the players on it. Our eyes also see ever further afield. In the virtual world we interact with other cultures in a way that would not have been possible a quarter of a century ago. Let us hope we can take this opportunity that technology has brought us and put it to good use, learning better to understand one another, and even teaching one another a greater, richer sense of humanity.

Let this be the fanfare heralding in an open and shared world community. Welcome one and all to the première of the virtual world!

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 5/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2007–2017
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, erittäin vahvasti
  • Ilmiön ydin: koko maapallosta rakennetaan verkossa tutkittava kolmiulotteinen malli ja yhteinen virtuaalinen toimintaympäristö.

Google Earth, globaalit karttapalvelut, satelliittikuvat, pelimaailmat ja digitaaliset kaksoset muodostivat maailmanlaajuisen virtuaalimallin. Yksi yhtenäinen SatWeb ei omista sitä, mutta toiminnallinen kokonaisuus on todellinen.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui erittäin vahvasti ja oikeassa aikaikkunassa.