A parable about
the logical consequences of scale precision can be found in Borges. This is about construction of map so precise
that it duplicate of everything that is supposed to represent. In geoscience, this describes a cartographic scale
of 1:1 where every foot corresponds to every “ground-truth” foot. Every topographic detail, at least, must be
reproduced.
At the heart of
understanding geographic precision is evidence of the scale that a map
represents. Borges creates this parable
of a passionate pursuit of exacting precision in cartography. Three events happen here. First, a perfect
rendering of cartography in a single map of the province is commanded. Second,
these renderings turned out to be “Unconscionable Maps, so the Cartographers’
Guild went back to work. The map is inscribable but it was not precise enough
for the administrative purposes of the Empire. Third, following their mandate
to the letter, they produced a map of the entire empire at a scale of 1:1. However,
the size of the map rendered it useless, if not redundant to the actual
territory. Following generations did not
revere the discipline of cartography and cast it into a desert only to become
the “Tattered Ruins of that Map.”
Every desiccated
piece is still at a scale of 1:1 because it is identical to where it was once
located. However, when blown by the wind, dried by the heat, eaten by animals, etc, the proper location of each piece is unknown. The precision is inescapable no matter how useless it became. The map became more useless the greater its reproduction of the land increased. The pieces became the ruins of cartographic
expertise. Cartographic perfection was
preserved in each fragment, but what the map represented could not be
discerned. No matter how much the Guild
of Cartographers (read the disciplines comprising geoscience itself until the
present, when cartography alone is no longer the sine qua none of the geographic profession) was respected,
subsequent generations found it worse than anachronistic. The utility of cartography is measured by its
geographic and historical scale.
The ruins of the geographic profession rendered it
irrelevant. A reader of Borges’ parable,
who is sympathetic with if not a member of the Cartographers’ Guild is likely
to wonder what replaced geoscience.