The End of Cartographers

When first thinking about this assignment, I found it very hard to think of other examples other than those in the text. I believe this is because in today's world, maps aren't really payed attention to. Sure we use our GPS systems while driving, but it is still very rare that we actually look at a map, especially a physical map.




This is an internet meme that went around a website called reddit. This was the first thing I thought about when reading the question. The meme is in the form "I'm from _____ and this is how I see America." The picture above was made by someone from southern California. The person who posted this image took a stock map of America and reduced it to a map of stereotypes. Almost a caricature of America. It was posted on-line as a joke, but some of these maps really do show how the rest of the country/world views the United States. The outcome of these types of maps are usually taken with a grain of salt. Since we live in the digital age and can easily access an accurate map, I don't think anyone would mistake this for a real map of America.

It seems that in our time the map is reasonably stable. I found a wikipedia article that lists the changes to the world map from the last 3000 years. It seems that since the fall of the Berlin wall and communist Russia, there haven't been many changes to the map that aren't countries splitting or name changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_map_changes