this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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I wonder if there would be any way to try to quantify the cost of mistakes made by the simple impossibility of accurately projecting a round image onto a flat surface.
You know, people make dumb mistakes because they just forget a conversion or something. People also probably make dumb mistakes because they forget to mentally correct a Mercator projection.
I feel like there's lots of soft mistakes, for example one might underestimate the size of African countries and therefore underestimate just how atrocious the colonization era was.
A Peters-projection proponent then?
Really, I just love globes. Had one as a kid. Also had a sailing game where you sailed around the world being a pirate, engaging in trade, exploring etc. The globe made the game a lot easier, could like, look back and forth from the globe to your screen to figure out where you were, since you already roughly knew. Played the shit out of that game, probably would've platinumed it if steam achievements were a thing.
Anyways though, the two together formed my brain in a way that any projections just kinda make it hurt a little. Mercators are the worst, of course. But in my head, they're all supposed to look how they look on a globe.
Idk, I think we’ve all seen a 3D model of a globe enough times to not be that surprised by this
We've all done unit conversions too. But that doesn't prevent occasional errors.
Multiply or divide by 10, 100 or 1000 is not that hard.
C'mon, you don't have to rub it in...
Gotcha 🙃