Since a few months ago this is more than a lame IT joke. Because, that’s when a scientist from Kew, England, discovered a hitherto unknown forest in the mountainous north of Mozambique. Nothing unusual in that. But the odd thing is that the forest, described by the scientists as a ”lost Eden”, was first spotted with the help of Google Earth. To our knowledge this is the first time in history that a territory is discovered without actually first finding the physical place and then mapping it. This order is now reversed and it gives a whole new ring to the expression ”armchair traveller”.

The newly discovered place is called Mount Mabu. It was one of the few uncharted spots on the planet until a British expedition from Kew Botanical Gardens led by Jonathan Timberlake stumbled upon a few years ago via Google Earth. An amazing discovery that brought forward a fascinating collection of new specimens and produced new, important knowledge, it also turned the concept of exploration on its head. 

To explore used to be about experiencing, getting into close contact with a place, sensing it, smelling it, being immersed in it. But that’s not to say that the idea of grasping the world, making it manageable and regular through technology is new. Or that the technological interaction with the world is less natural. In fact, that idea is as old as mankind. And it’s farfetched to say that it is one of mankind’s defining attributes.

The tendency to shrink the world has haunted mankind at least since the first world maps were drawn in the 6th century BC. The goal with this type of visual representation of vast spaces has of course always been to bring the world down to a human scale. Mankind may be tiny compared to our planet.