Useful maps must balance fidelity to reality against simplification

Evidence

Every model or map is an abstraction and will be more useful for some purposes than for others. A road map shows us how to drive from A to B, but will not be very useful if we are piloting a plane, in which case we will want a map highlighting airfields, radio beacons, flight paths, and topography. With no map, however, we will be lost. The more detailed a map is the more fully it will reflect reality. An extremely detailed map, however, will not be useful for many purposes. If we wish to get from one big city to another on a major expressway, we do not need and may find confusing a map which includes much information unrelated to automotive transportation and in which the major highways are lost in a complex mass of secondary roads. A map, on the other hand, which had only one expressway on it would eliminate much reality and limit our ability to find alternative routes if the expressway were blocked by a major accident. In short, we need a map that both portrays reality and simplifies reality in a way that best serves our purposes. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 55 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In terms of most communication theories and common sense, a map is a scientific abstraction of reality. A map merely represents something which already exists objectively ‘there.’ In the history I have described, this relationship was reversed. A map anticipated spatial reality, not vice versa. In other words, a map was a model for, rather than a model of, what it purported to represent. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 661 (#complicates, via linked claim)

In terms of most communication theories and common sense, a map is a scientific abstraction of reality. A map merely represents something which already exists objectively ‘there.’ In the history I have described, this relationship was reversed. A map anticipated spatial reality, not vice versa. In other words, a map was a model for, rather than a model of, what it purported to represent. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 660 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Maps can construct territory rather than merely represent it — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 661; Maps can precede and shape territorial reality rather than merely reflect it. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 660; Useful models must both represent reality and simplify it for specific purposes — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 55 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Useful models must both represent reality and simplify it for specific purposes #corroborates (0.93) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 55
• Maps can construct territory rather than merely represent it #complicates (0.82) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 661
• Maps can precede and shape territorial reality rather than merely reflect it. #complicates (0.80) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 660