“There are many ways to characterize “human.” Here’s one: Humans are humans because they can map better and more complexly than any other kind of organism,” I say. “They can map the past, the present, and the future; they can even map worlds that don’t exist. If I may borrow from Descartes, I map; therefore, I am.”
Thinking you have me in your mental grasp, you respond, “Birds migrate; so do whales, salmon, turtles, and even horseshoe crabs. One doesn’t migrate without some type of mapping. Dogs can map a way home or to food on the other side of a fence. Obviously, animals also have the ability to map.”
“Good point, but their maps are limited to getting food, reproducing, and finding family and shelter; and their maps are used instinctively at one time or another for something necessary: go north in spring; go south in fall; return to Capistrano or any migratory location. Humans, by contrast, map even the unnecessary, like the route to Capistrano to see the birds return. Or even a route to Capistrano that is so indirect it includes scenery for the sake of seeing scenery and takes an extra day to get there. It doesn’t matter what kind of map they make, physical or mental, humans map everything all the time.
“Mental maps do more than define us as a separate species; they define us as individuals. Your maps and mine differ. I see a feng shui where you see an uncomfortable arrangement. I see a neighborhood I would avoid where you see one with nostalgic fondness. I go out of my way to avoid highways in favor of two-lane country roads, whereas you head for the highway. I map a route for its geologic sites; you map one for its farmers’ markets. Mental maps aren’t just directions. They are infused with attitude. They reflect emotion and desire. The infusion and reflection define each of us. Our mental maps are representations of our worldviews, our Weltanshauung. And that leads to some advice I’ll give at the end of this essay that is not too different from that given by A. E. Housman in his poem ‘Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff’:
Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.
“Because this is not your practice life, you would be well advised to map realistically the physical and social landscapes through which you daily travel. Mental mapping is a survival mechanism that enables you to avoid dangers and enhance your life. You cannot impose a map on reality to satisfy your inner desires without consequence. The landscape is what it is; you know that because you have mapped your dwelling sufficiently well enough to find the bathroom at night without turning on the lights. You know where the steps are because you have mentally mapped them. Those disposed to impose their imaginative maps on the world tumble down real steps they do not include. You have to know where you are in relation to what is helpful, harmful, or inconsequential. To live happily and effectively, you also have to know how to find your way in a world that, as Housman writes, ‘has much less good than ill.’
“If what you mentally map reflects the world as it is, you’ll live effectively and you might find happiness. The trick for you is not to impose patterns where none exist or to think that all mental map projections are equally good at representing the world. You have a choice, of course. You can choose to map the world as your emotions and desires dictate, or map the landscape as it conforms to a real landscape across which you can navigate safely and, hopefully, happily.
“True, it’s not in human nature to look at the world without imposing some wishful thinking, that is, without elaborating the map like some medieval monk’s illuminating a manuscript or some early cartographer’s adding pictures of sea monsters or the words ‘Here there be dragons’ to fill in gaps in knowledge. Everyone probably has an idea of what the world could be if everything conforms to personal desires and will. Unfortunately for those who want a world that conforms to their imaginations, the world exists independently of any individual; there are realities that exist outside the mind. We fool ourselves when we believe, as John Milton has Satan say in Paradise Lost, ‘The mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.’ Some Hells remain Hells regardless of our mentally mapping them differently.
“But since I’ve referred to a couple of poems, let me put the advice I said I would offer in verse.”
The Landscape in the Mind
Happy little bunnies freely frolic in a field.
They share the leaves and flowers and to each other yield.
The sun is shining brightly as bees go buzzing by
While puffball clouds make images against an azure sky.
Oh! No! Some clouds are merging there, it’s getting very cloudy.
The bunnies scramble for a hole; now some are very rowdy.
The rains now pound the flowers and bend them to the ground,
And water soon accumulates; the dam cannot impound.
Its wall is breached; the stream is filled,
And soon the water floods the field.
The bunnies drown down in their holes.
But then the clouds, like spritely souls
Turn white again like angels’ wings
And gently move as black bird sings.
Well, no, not sing, more like a “caw.”
The crows alight to fill their maw.
The fungi grow to eat the rest
While maggots wiggle with great zest.
Ah! Mother Nature at her best!
The field’s now changed at Her behest:
A muddy land, decay, and death;
No floral scents on bunnies’ breath.
Then happy maggots change and fly
And zip across the azure sky.
Which landscape’s better in your mind?
But if you think the flowered kind,
Remember flies are what you find
In natural states if not your mind.
Don’t map a world you want to be,
Map one with harsh reality.
Thinking you have me in your mental grasp, you respond, “Birds migrate; so do whales, salmon, turtles, and even horseshoe crabs. One doesn’t migrate without some type of mapping. Dogs can map a way home or to food on the other side of a fence. Obviously, animals also have the ability to map.”
“Good point, but their maps are limited to getting food, reproducing, and finding family and shelter; and their maps are used instinctively at one time or another for something necessary: go north in spring; go south in fall; return to Capistrano or any migratory location. Humans, by contrast, map even the unnecessary, like the route to Capistrano to see the birds return. Or even a route to Capistrano that is so indirect it includes scenery for the sake of seeing scenery and takes an extra day to get there. It doesn’t matter what kind of map they make, physical or mental, humans map everything all the time.
“Mental maps do more than define us as a separate species; they define us as individuals. Your maps and mine differ. I see a feng shui where you see an uncomfortable arrangement. I see a neighborhood I would avoid where you see one with nostalgic fondness. I go out of my way to avoid highways in favor of two-lane country roads, whereas you head for the highway. I map a route for its geologic sites; you map one for its farmers’ markets. Mental maps aren’t just directions. They are infused with attitude. They reflect emotion and desire. The infusion and reflection define each of us. Our mental maps are representations of our worldviews, our Weltanshauung. And that leads to some advice I’ll give at the end of this essay that is not too different from that given by A. E. Housman in his poem ‘Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff’:
Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.
“Because this is not your practice life, you would be well advised to map realistically the physical and social landscapes through which you daily travel. Mental mapping is a survival mechanism that enables you to avoid dangers and enhance your life. You cannot impose a map on reality to satisfy your inner desires without consequence. The landscape is what it is; you know that because you have mapped your dwelling sufficiently well enough to find the bathroom at night without turning on the lights. You know where the steps are because you have mentally mapped them. Those disposed to impose their imaginative maps on the world tumble down real steps they do not include. You have to know where you are in relation to what is helpful, harmful, or inconsequential. To live happily and effectively, you also have to know how to find your way in a world that, as Housman writes, ‘has much less good than ill.’
“If what you mentally map reflects the world as it is, you’ll live effectively and you might find happiness. The trick for you is not to impose patterns where none exist or to think that all mental map projections are equally good at representing the world. You have a choice, of course. You can choose to map the world as your emotions and desires dictate, or map the landscape as it conforms to a real landscape across which you can navigate safely and, hopefully, happily.
“True, it’s not in human nature to look at the world without imposing some wishful thinking, that is, without elaborating the map like some medieval monk’s illuminating a manuscript or some early cartographer’s adding pictures of sea monsters or the words ‘Here there be dragons’ to fill in gaps in knowledge. Everyone probably has an idea of what the world could be if everything conforms to personal desires and will. Unfortunately for those who want a world that conforms to their imaginations, the world exists independently of any individual; there are realities that exist outside the mind. We fool ourselves when we believe, as John Milton has Satan say in Paradise Lost, ‘The mind is its own place and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.’ Some Hells remain Hells regardless of our mentally mapping them differently.
“But since I’ve referred to a couple of poems, let me put the advice I said I would offer in verse.”
The Landscape in the Mind
Happy little bunnies freely frolic in a field.
They share the leaves and flowers and to each other yield.
The sun is shining brightly as bees go buzzing by
While puffball clouds make images against an azure sky.
Oh! No! Some clouds are merging there, it’s getting very cloudy.
The bunnies scramble for a hole; now some are very rowdy.
The rains now pound the flowers and bend them to the ground,
And water soon accumulates; the dam cannot impound.
Its wall is breached; the stream is filled,
And soon the water floods the field.
The bunnies drown down in their holes.
But then the clouds, like spritely souls
Turn white again like angels’ wings
And gently move as black bird sings.
Well, no, not sing, more like a “caw.”
The crows alight to fill their maw.
The fungi grow to eat the rest
While maggots wiggle with great zest.
Ah! Mother Nature at her best!
The field’s now changed at Her behest:
A muddy land, decay, and death;
No floral scents on bunnies’ breath.
Then happy maggots change and fly
And zip across the azure sky.
Which landscape’s better in your mind?
But if you think the flowered kind,
Remember flies are what you find
In natural states if not your mind.
Don’t map a world you want to be,
Map one with harsh reality.
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