Vague (and not necessarily unified) rambles regarding simulation.

When approaching this assignment, my mind was immediately drawn to subjective nature of interpretation. My first thought was of my home town; how would my simulation of my hometown differ from my mother’s or my brother’s simulation? My mother didn’t grow up in the town and she didn’t work there, either. Her interactions with Hartselle existed strictly in the nightlife when her husband wanted to go out for dinner. My brother didn’t attend the high school, didn’t have friends in town, and left when things got boring. I, however, was left without a car and thrust into a brand new social circle with no knowledge of how things work. After at least a year of fumbling in the metaphorical darkness, I built an intimate knowledge of local hotspots, places to avoid, and overall “fun” areas in the Hartselle area. My family has none of this knowledge. If asked to create a simulation of the town, I would have an intricate web of zones, color coded and labeled to be easy to read. My mother and brother would have a map of the interstate leading out of town.

Moving farther out of the reality, I wondered how individuals of a fantasy world would depict their own environment. Thinking of Middle Earth, I realized that there could be no one true simulation. If you ask the dwarves to simulate Middle Earth, you would receive a detailed depiction of mineral veins, gem deposits, and underground fortresses dotted around the subterranean landscape. They would have pirate map-esque warnings of “Danger in the tunnels” and “Beware the silver tongued elves.” The map would be lacking in “superfluous” details; nothing but essential information would be included in the maps. Also, the maps themselves would be built to withstand the tumultuous environment of the underground mines. Juxtaposing this industrially efficient mindset, the elves would have a sprawling map of the entire land mass; their map would have geographical landmarks, constructed cities, and hidden messages interwoven into the very fabric of the map. The images would be elegant, detailed, and often decorative.

This isn’t anywhere near being a finished thought process, but I have to submit this now. Woohoo.

Oh, yeah. A map. Here's Middle Earth: http://blog.lefigaro.fr/hightech/middle-earth-map.jpg