Just as printed maps or the ones we read online are lies, so too are the maps we use for trying to navigate our mental and emotional lives. Whatever descriptor we choose, and however we choose to apply it to our mental maps, they both over-represent the things which we are pointing out on the landscape, but so too they work to obscure other parts of the picture. In the case of old style maps, where ink lines on paper were a schematic for roads or trails, drawing a map for a traveler must, by definition ignore the biota and ecosystems upon which the road network was imposed upon. Even when I was a child I realized that if the drawing was true to scale, the main roads would be over a mile wide. Alas, another example of only seeing what we are told to see. It is easy to overlook things when we look at life like a vast array of pigeonholes, each filled with a specific notion or meaning, a perspective and "understanding". These ideas, like maps, neglect much of what they truly are for the sake of our putting them to use. We think we are understanding the region, based on the maps we have allowed to be "true" in our current conceptualization of the world, solar system, star cluster, galaxy, universe and perhaps multiverse around us. Even when we pour endless hours into contemplating the most trivial definitions, we find that there can be much debate and range of opinion about what if any meaning their own particular perspectives warrant. My orienteering has led me to perceive many things from a unique perspective and this creates shades of meaning for me that no one else should have. We communicate in spite of these things.
If we cannot agree on the same map, will it necessarily lead to problems? Not if we understand that each map that we create is the best we can do with what we have at our disposal. We can not help our urge to use iconography, letting trite words represent vast fields of possibility. In some ways, I urge my readers to be like the spider. I recently learned that spiders can not only tell what sector of their web holds prey, relative size but the difference between dust, leaves or seed pods falling into the web as well. Their map of at least the space within their web is light years ahead of any information and retrieval system designed by humans.
We often prop up our own egos up with minutia, neglecting the more important and profound truths.we even live our lives according to arbitrary principles that have been foisted upon us by others, neglecting to study or suss out why. We have one of the most elaborate and deft processors ever created between our ears, but we allow others to determine what sub routines we run in them. We are facing a very real threat today from those who would supplant our highly evolved capacity for thought and reason with centuries old folk wisdom. It was one thing when social control and religious doctrine went hand in hand with the divine right of Kings, but in the world today, the last thing we need is to be bowing down to the rich and powerful. These are the same people who have destroyed the environment for generations, ignored social ills in favor of their own enrichment and crushed anyone who stood in their way.
The mental maps we need to create to navigate the future need to include ideologies like create no waste, do no harm and give back to assure that everyone has enough. Teaching these basic concepts and making sure that we are beginning to understand the world around us will require better mind maps than we have ever had before and the ability to understand that however accurate we make them, in the final analysis they can only hint at certain truths at the expense of others. We also need to remember the very stark contrast between the map and the territory. We dare not concentrate too fully on the pretty lines of demarcation and the clean look of our perceptual tools, but the real experience, the actual terrain and the interaction of life that happens around us. Once we begin to understand where we are and how we got here, the maps won't matter anyway.
If we cannot agree on the same map, will it necessarily lead to problems? Not if we understand that each map that we create is the best we can do with what we have at our disposal. We can not help our urge to use iconography, letting trite words represent vast fields of possibility. In some ways, I urge my readers to be like the spider. I recently learned that spiders can not only tell what sector of their web holds prey, relative size but the difference between dust, leaves or seed pods falling into the web as well. Their map of at least the space within their web is light years ahead of any information and retrieval system designed by humans.
We often prop up our own egos up with minutia, neglecting the more important and profound truths.we even live our lives according to arbitrary principles that have been foisted upon us by others, neglecting to study or suss out why. We have one of the most elaborate and deft processors ever created between our ears, but we allow others to determine what sub routines we run in them. We are facing a very real threat today from those who would supplant our highly evolved capacity for thought and reason with centuries old folk wisdom. It was one thing when social control and religious doctrine went hand in hand with the divine right of Kings, but in the world today, the last thing we need is to be bowing down to the rich and powerful. These are the same people who have destroyed the environment for generations, ignored social ills in favor of their own enrichment and crushed anyone who stood in their way.
The mental maps we need to create to navigate the future need to include ideologies like create no waste, do no harm and give back to assure that everyone has enough. Teaching these basic concepts and making sure that we are beginning to understand the world around us will require better mind maps than we have ever had before and the ability to understand that however accurate we make them, in the final analysis they can only hint at certain truths at the expense of others. We also need to remember the very stark contrast between the map and the territory. We dare not concentrate too fully on the pretty lines of demarcation and the clean look of our perceptual tools, but the real experience, the actual terrain and the interaction of life that happens around us. Once we begin to understand where we are and how we got here, the maps won't matter anyway.
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