So much Untapped POTENTIAL

Maybe a month or two ago I thought how cool would it be to have some kind of tool where we can see history in action. See recently I have come to realize that there is no such thing as law, economics, history, art, science, politics, war, psychology... none of these concepts exist in a vacuum. All there is is humans interacting with each other - creating institutions, trading, inspiring others, etc.

So essentially what I am imagining is taking something like google earth.... doing a massive data import and then being able to see how things change over time. Offering thousands of layers like economic indicators, the major movements and people of the time, critical junctures, territory expansion and consolidation, the ruling institutions, how much trade is going on, demographics, psychographics - all with annotations that explain the underlying reasons why these things are taking place. There are a million different subject/object oriented timelines you could make into layers.

The more I study history the more I can see how one event relates to another. What if future generations could just hop on google earth and discover these patterns in a more natural way? I think we would have a better informed masses who are much better equipped to make important decisions. Call it the cynicism in me, but it seems most people know more about the NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB/Celebrities/Video-game levels (all that is frivolous) than they do important historical events - in all realms - political, scientific, etc. 

Right now I am just worried that the UX/UI of google earth isn't designed in a way that is conducive to habit formation. 

Thoughts?

Hi Trones, I sort of see what you are asking for, many members have created most of what you want, check out the old GEC productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/gec-dynamic-data-layers

Google Earth won't create their own layers for such events. But many members have created some. Have a look through and maybe you might want to start your own here.

Cheers.