jscn comments on What's in a name? That which we call a rationalist… - Less Wrong

4 Post author: badger 24 April 2009 11:53PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (88)

Comments (88)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: MBlume 25 April 2009 05:05:19AM *  11 points [-]

the most enduring group-member-name I can think of off the top of my head is "mason" -- can anyone think of better?

Now, masons don't actually cut rock. But it's a nice vivid handle anyway, so they use it.

So, in that vein, I'd like to promote the now-deleted suggestion "map-makers," or perhaps "cartographers"

Comment author: badger 25 April 2009 05:20:59AM *  10 points [-]

College of Cartographers has a nice secret society ring to it. It's versatile as well. I can imagine it being applied to explorer-adventurers out to conquer terra incognita or a shadowy group governing the world.

Comment author: jscn 25 April 2009 07:04:44AM 10 points [-]

I've always enjoyed Lewis Carroll's talk of maps:

"That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"

"About six inches to the mile."

"Only six inches!" exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!"

"Have you used it much?" I enquired.

"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.

From Sylvie and Bruno Concluded by Lewis Carroll, first published in 1893.

Comment author: Kindly 30 April 2015 02:04:40AM 4 points [-]

Only a single mile to the mile? I've seen maps in biology textbooks that were much larger than that.

Comment author: pure-awesome 29 April 2015 06:42:06PM 2 points [-]

So much for "the map is not the territory", I guess.

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit