X-No-Archive: yes
The term 'neuro-linguistics' in one of your posts niggled, like
a tiny splitter in one's stocking, at the fringe of awareness,
until I finally, in exasperation, googled 'map not territory'.
Interesting.
I most likely encountered the phrase in question -- most likely
without Capital Letters -- in some work of Speculative Fiction
and thought, well, *that* puts it nicely, and happily appended
it to my small store of that-puts-it-nicelies: it makes a good
proxy, in common-usage terms, for the more specialist adage,
the Model is not the Process.
It is so obvious -- at least to anyone who attempts to persuade
High Technology to produce a desired effect -- that it did not
occur to me to that it might be the subject of serious academic
consideration, or a cause for the Making Of Books.
As it happens, everything I have said regarding The Map and The
Territory originated with me, including the Capital Letters --
which almost all writers on the subject use, presumably for the
same reason I use them: to indicate that the terms are to be
understood as referring to generalised concepts, rather than to
particular instances.
Well, the Elephant has a large Body, small Eyes, large Ears, a
small Tail, and -- oh! -- a Large Prehensile Nose; why should
an independent observation of the Elephant, reporting that it
has a large Body, small Eyes, large Ears, a small Tail, and --
oh! -- a Large Prehensile Nose, raise eyebrows?
One Territory! One Map! Many Mapsters!
Ronin
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