Intertexts

Intenexts, vol. 1, no. 2, Fall 1997 Journeys, Maps, and Territories: Charting Uncertain Terrain in Science and Literature C a r l A . R u b i n o H a m i l t o n C o l l e g e How different is the view of past life, in the man who is grown old in knowledge and wisdom, from that of him who is grown old in ignorance andfolly!Thelatterisliketheownerofabarrencountry,thatfillshiseye with the prospect of naked hills and plains, which produce nothing either profitable or ornamental; the other beholds abeautiful and spacious landscape,dividedintodelightfulgardens,greenmeadows,fhiitfiilfields; and can scarce cast his eye on asingle spot of his possessions that i‘ covered with some beautiful plant or flower. I S n o t The Spectator, No. 94 1 . I n t r o d u c t i o n Ishall set this discussion in ascientific context by beginning with brief remarks about evolutionary systems. As many s o m e notably Hya Prigogine—haveargued,evolutionarysystemsaremarkedbycomplexitv that increases over timc.^ Evolution implies time: if time, then evolution-^ andonlythen.Forthingstochange,andtheydo,theremustbetime.As timepasses,evolutionarysystemsmodifythemselvesthroughtheirinterac¬ tionwiththeenvironmentinwhichtheyareembedded.Thisinvolvesa continualoscillationbetweenorderandchaos.Inordertoendurean evolutionarysystemmustbeabletoconstandyreorganizeandreorderitself: it must adapt to circumstances both within and without its environment Furthermore,acloseexaminationofsuchprocessesrevealsthattimeitself appearssubjecttooscillation:attimesitseemstomovequiteslowly,aseons pass with litde ifany apparentchange,while atothers itaccelerates sometimes wildly, as the pace of change increases. ’ Inthinkingabouthowtodescribesuchsystems,wemightconsiderthe example of amap.Agood map, as we know, needs constant revision: it mustkeeppacenotonlywithchangesintheterrainitaimstochartbutalso withincreasesinourcapacitytodescribethatterraininmoredetail.Indeed themoredetailedamapis,themoreitwillneedsuchrevision.Duringa recenttriptonorthernCalifornia,forexample,Ispentsometimeadmiring arichly detailed topographical map of the coastal area Iwas visiting: yet it tookonlyonewalkonthebeachtoremindmethatthemapwasalready outofdateatthemomentitwasprinted.Nevertheless,maps,imperfect they are, serve areal human need: agood map, particularly one that is m o s t a s 1 1 8 1 1 9 Rubino—Journeys, Maps, and Territories esthetically pleasing, offers the illusion of astable and permanent order, reducing the infinite complexity of alandscape to an ordered abstraction that allows us to move through it toward aclearly defined goal. The expression “cognitive map” has been used to characterize the mental construction or, perhaps better, the mental process that provides individuals and the cultures to which they belong with something on which to depend, something that enables them to read the vast complexity of life, astable point in the midst of radical instability, where life’s infinite jumble acquires the characteristics of an ordered landscape in which everything has its proper place (see Lazio et al.). It is such maps that give us the stable framework that enables us, if Imight borrow fi-om Loren Eiseley, to join the immense journey of life. All this recalls the definition of myth offered by Roland Barthes: follow¬ ing him, we might say that maps, like myths, work to turn what is cultural, and therefore relative and transient, into something natural in the Newto¬ niansense,somethingabsoluteandpermanent(“MythToday”).^Indeed, at times amyth can take the form of amap. Barthes uses the example of France’s colonial empire, showing how myth both creates and supports the deep-seated imperialist conviction that large parts of the world were “by nature” to be part of France, anotion that was heavily laden at the time whenhewaswritinghisessay.Americans,ontheotherhand,mightwish torecalltheconceptof“ManifestDestiny,”accordingtowhichalargepart of what we now call the West Coast was destined “by nature” to become partoftheUnitedStates.Whileup-to-datemapsofFrancenolonger includeAlgeriaorwhatEuropeansoncecalledIndo-China,everymapof the United States includes California, tempting us to believe that what has happenedissomehownatural,thatitiseternalandnotsubjecttochange. But remember those “other Americans” who inhabited the Californian wildernessduringallthosecenturiesbeforethecomingofthewhiteman in his various national incarnations: they too must have felt that their order wouldneverchange.Indeed,anyonewhowishestoconceiveofaperma¬ nent “Californian order” must wrestle not only with questions of rapid— oftendizzying—politicalandsocialchangebutalsowithmattersof“real” seismology,thosenaturaldisasterswecallearthquakes.Whatisnatural,as weknowfromtheso-callednewphysics,doesnothavetobeNewtonian: itmaynotbesopermanentandimmutableafterall.Itmakesnodifference, then, whether we are speaking of natural or cultural landscapes: time passes, and change is inevitable. The future is never inscribed in the present. Barthes’ analysis of myth nicely complements Levi-Strauss’s reflections on the relation of myth to time. In one of his most provocative utterances, Levi-Strauss compares myth to music, saying that both need time “only in order to deny it,” and that both are “instruments for the obliteration of time” (The Raw and...