In many instances, privacy is threatened not by singular egregious acts, but by a slow series of relatively minor acts which gradually begin to add up. In this way, privacy problems resemble certain environmental harms which occur over time through a series of small acts by different actors. Bartow wants to point to a major spill, but gradual pollution by a multitude of different actors often creates worse problems.

Daniel J. Solove, George Washington University Law School

What is a Divine Mind? the reader will perhaps inquire. There is not a theologian who does not define it; I prefer an example. The steps a man takes from the day of his birth until that of his death trace in time an inconceivable figure. The Divine Mind intuitively grasps that form immediately, as men do a triangle. This figure (perhaps) has its given function in the economy of the universe.

 Jorge Luis Borges, "The Mirror of Enigmas"

Graph generated from Aaron Parecki's 2008-2012 GPS logs.

The image above is a location graph, not a map. It is the shape of a man in space-time, as observed from orbit. The graph was created by Aaron Parecki, who recorded his mobile GPS position every 2-6 seconds from 2008 until March of this year. 2.5 million data points, in all. Insofar as the 2D planar projection of his data is color coded to distinguish among annual location patterns, one might fairly call it an example of temporal cartography. I prefer to think of it as a glimpse into machine consciousness, however; or else, the observations of some higher-dimensional being with sense organs more powerful than my own.

Follow the link for more images from this project.