Paul Butler, an intern at Facebook, mapped ten million friend connections to reverse-engineer a map of the world.

After a few minutes of rendering, the new plot appeared, and I was a bit taken aback by what I saw. The blob had turned into a surprisingly detailed map of the world. Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well. What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life.

I’ve imagined for some time that Facebook has a live version of this in some Bond-villain-ish central control room, a master view of the world’s social fabric. Zuckerberg presides over panels of lights and buttons, pointing to untapped regions – like Russia and Mauritania – that are ripe for poking.

Looks like Siberia needs to get with the program.