Is there a perfect map?
A map is commonly thought of as a simplified form of any worldly concept created to solve a particular quandary. This means that in order for a map to be useful, it must make life easier and should be able to solve the problem. Based on this, a generalization can be made; “A good map mandatorily SIMPLIFIES things”. For instance, one person may want to find all the available sites at a holiday spot to go snowboarding. In this case, they would most likely seek a recreational tourist resort map. Another might look for great areas to go shopping in a new country. In this case, they would like a city tourism map. Another person, an environmental activist may look for maps detailing all the forests and natural resorts in the area. For this too, they would require a special kind of map, one meant for natural habitats and reserves. In this way, it is clear that there is a large demand for any kind of map, for there are infinitely many purposes maps could be needed for and just as many features that users would like to see in their maps. Thus, since the purposes for a map are infinite, there is no way a single map can meet ALL the purposes possible. However much or little detail a map has, it will eventually reach its limit as it fails to qualify a certain need, for what use would a map detailing the shopping centers be for a snowboarder? Not only is it unable to suit its purpose completely, it also holds various limitations in its amounts of accuracy or detail. For instance, when creating a map for natural reserves and forests, what map would be able to provide the exact distance from one spot to another? What would be able to state the exact quantity of a certain factor, such as the number of trees in the area? Furthermore, natural habitats and other landscapes are never set in stone, ie; they are ever-changing. A map can never address these shortcomings. No matter how many resources and care are put into the creation of the map, the map will eventually grow old, and will thus be outdated, presenting information that may not necessarily be true. Thus, it will eventually lose its utility. The ultimate map would be that which could instantly modify itself as the subject it portrays changes, while suiting all the possible purposes it could for the area it depicts. Alas, humans have not figured out how to resolve this final predicament.
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