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> That's the point of the post. I lost it in the post. Whenever I hear the “crisis” part presented without the perfectly rational explanation I get frustrated
by prepend 3y ago
> That's the point of the post.
I lost it in the post. Whenever I hear the “crisis” part presented without the perfectly rational explanation I get frustrated and spend more time trying to figure out if this is a problem.
Saying “maps distort the way we see the world” is a problem unless you immediately follow it with “and that’s ok because…”
Otherwise we waste time on stuff like “eyeballs distort the way we see the world” when it’s true but not an issue at all.
Especially since the first paragraph mentions how countries closer to the equator tend to be poorer. As if that’s somehow relevant.
- thfuran 3y agoI don't understand what you're saying. The article doesn't present this as a crisis. It doesn't really make sense to say it's okay or not okay, except insofar as anything that isn't an existential threat is okay, I suppose.
- p0pcult 3y agoThe second sentence of the article strongly implies some nefarious concentration of power and wealth among the globally powerful countries is at the root of the popularity of mercator projections.
- watwut 3y agoThat is entirely on you tho. Becasuse that sentence does not imply anything about concentration of power nor about globally powerful countries and even nothing about origin of popularity of mercator projections. It does imply that poor countries around equator are bigger then they look like. That is it.
- aydyn 3y agoIt literally does. Dont play ignorant.
- coldtea 3y agoWell, they is a "nefarious concentration of power and wealth among the globally powerful countries". And the Mercator projection does suit them practically, and shows their countries bigger than they are, so...
- robertlagrant 3y agoSo...?
- usrbinbash 3y ago> And the Mercator projection does suit them practically, and shows their countries bigger than they are, so... So what? Do these countries become more powerful, richer, or have more resources than others because they are represented bigger on a common map projection? If so, then let's just hope that our new overlords from the Antarctican Coalition are benign emperors :D
- coldtea 3y ago>Do these countries become more powerful, richer, or have more resources than others because they are represented bigger on a common map projection? No. They become so by colonizing and stealing other's resources. Then the map projections that are convenient for them, are imposed upon the rest of humanity. This, among other legitimate uses, has the side-benefit for them of presenting said countries as larger than they are, and thus being one more way to subconsciously hammer onto everybody their superiority at that level too...
- p0pcult 3y ago[dead]
- usrbinbash 3y ago> They become so by colonizing and stealing other's resources. Pretty sure all of the former colonies are independent nations by now, and have been for more than a generation. > Then the map projections that are convenient for them, are imposed upon the rest of humanity. Excuse me? Who is imposing what on whom now, and how? Last time I checked, everyone is free to use whatever map projection they want, centered on whatever point of the globe they want. Or they can use an actual globe. > has the side-benefit for them of presenting said countries as larger than they are, and thus being one more way to subconsciously hammer onto everybody their superiority at that level too... Yeah, pretty sure I don't perceive Antarctica as some kind of superior super-nation. Or greenland, although I gotta say, it's a really cool place, especially during summer.
- the_af 3y agoThe poor countries claim has a footnote and a promise to explore it in another article. It doesn't say anything further about this. The article also doesn't answer whether the distortions are intentional, a side-effect, a trade-off, or a combination of some of this. The author promises a follow-up article, unfortunately a "premium" one which I suppose you must pay for (edit: sadly, it's paywalled: https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/are-maps-deceitful https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/are-maps-decei...)
- cebsoto 3y agoI read it as the post is simply pointing out something that a large percentage of the population was not even aware about. I don't think it goes any deeper than that.
- prepend 3y agoWhy is it important that poor people live near the equator? I expect that a large part of the population is aware of this fact. So bringing it up doesn’t contribute to the article and is a bit off in the article. Why not mention that the days are longer in the summer away from the equator. Or they people near the equator have darker pigment. Or many other true but irrelevant facts.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- XorNot 3y agoBecause the equator in the Mercator projection is the closest to "true size"...which means that the wealthier nations, well above that, are in fact exacerbated in apparent land mass. I like this site[1] for showing the true size of countries on a standard projection. Look at how much the US actually changes in size when you move it's latitude even a little. Like it or not, the perception of scale of a problem is linked to apparent size - Africa looks smaller then it is, whereas the European countries look a lot larger then they are. When we talk about a problem affecting somewhere, the idea that "most of the world is experiencing it" is contraindicated by our maps even if only subconsciously. [1] https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTc0MzY1MDE.NTAzNDgz*MzEyMTc3NDQ(NjA2MzQ0Nw~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTAwMjQwNzU.MjUwMjM1MTc(MTc1)MA~!IN*NTI2NDA1MQ.Nzg2MzQyMQ)MQ~!CN*OTk1NTM3MA.NzM1ODU3OQ(MjI1)Mg https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTc0MzY1MDE.NTAzNDg...
- kortilla 3y agoNobody looks at a map before saying “most of the world is experiencing X”. This is a fantasy straw man.