In Praise of Parochialism

Why did this alien planet make me think of home?

This weirdly tall panorama photograph was beamed from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover as it humble-bragged its interplanetary exploits. Look, earthlings! I made tyre tracks on Mars! The tonal depth and resolution seem so familiar that the image resembles an iPhone snap.

You can almost feel the sand beneath your space boots or the sharp rocks under your squi…