Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?

For an interesting NASA and Apple-related fall down a rabbit hole, start with the origin of the name of “The Whole Earth Catalog” in 1966, skip forward to 1972 when a whole earth photo was made.

Photo of the whole earth made in 1972

Then take a turn to one of Steve Jobs' favourite sayings “Stay hungry stay foolish” which he quoted in 2005 at Stanford in his famous commencement speech.

Back page of the last Whole Earth Catalog magazine: Stay hungry, stay foolish

Ad then wrap back around to how the whole earth image as an iPhone wallpaper came to be.

Original iPhone with earth background

Welcome to my brain, where I just think about this stuff.