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You always hear "the map is not the territory". Which is to say, names are applied, models are asserted and all our fine ideas about the world are our own contrivance, not the world's.

But how close could we get?




Not very close at all.

Every map that is made leaves out an enormous amount of the territory because that detail is irrelevant to the map being used or created. The more detailed the map is, the more one should recognise just how much more detail is being ignored.

If you want to get close, just go to the territory itself and be there directly.

All too often, we use mathematics as a map for the actual world around and to keep that map manageable, we have to ignore much of the actual world.


The trick would be to find a real phenomenon that expresses itself symbolically. Like discovering an animal born with a nametag.

I think you'd have to look in the realm of thought for that.

Surely it isn't just empty space where we build our memories and models. Surely it has its own landscape.




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