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This is the story of how the map became the territory. This is the history of how things that used to be practical became sites of fetishized contemplation, and how categories that used to belong exclusively to humans now extend across the universe. This is also a story about what happens when you let these kinds of fictions be true--when mapping becomes an act of colonialism, fear, and fantasy. It's all happening now, still happening too fast for us to digest or even talk about yet--the map-territory line has become so blurred as to disappear altogether. The history of maps is the story of our attempts to understand the world around us, and what better way to understand it than by making maps? Before the advent of the magnetic compass or even that great road-mapping machine, before Newtonian calculus or even that great celestial sphere, before any of these things existed ... who was mapping?, why? The answer to both questions is yes. Magnetic compasses were first determined to be useful in navigation by Chinese sailors in the 3rd century B.C., while Greek mathematicians devised geometric methods for measuring angles in order to determine latitude and longitude shortly thereafter. Celestial cartography, or mapping the stars and planets, was soon to follow. But long before all this, we learned how to make maps in order to hunt and gather for food and water. We were mapping the land since we first stood upright and looked around. It's like this: you're lost in a desert. You don't know where you are; you're not sure what direction you're facing; you don't even know what continent you're on. You're thirsty; your tongue is stuck to the roof of your mouth; your throat burns with every breath that passes through it. You feel dizzy with heat exhaustion, but there is no shade anywhere near you--and there is no water anywhere around either. You need water desperately. You would do anything ... This is the state of mind of the desert explorer--a state of extreme anxiety and dread. But not just any kind of anxiety or dread; it's a very specific kind--it's anticipation anxiety--anticipation disguised as panic. What will happen if you don't find water soon? You don't know, but you're sure the worst will happen. You decide that it's time to act, before your panic intensifies more than it already has. The only way to find water is to head in the direction you're facing, but it isn't much help. The ground is too hard to dig with your hands. You have no pick, shovel or axe--you don't even have a stick or rock with which you can use in digging for dirt. But what do you have? You've got a piece of paper, drawn by hand on a flat surface. You strip down your clothes and step onto the paper; it's not very long, either; probably less than two meters. Are you sure that the paper will measure out exactly? You could get confused and end up off course by dozens of meters. cfa1e77820
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