Alexander Von Humboldt. Carl Ritter. Alfred Russel Wallace. Paul Vidal de La Blache. Jared Diamond. Yifu Tuan. David Harvey. Milton Santos.
亚历山大·冯·洪堡。 卡尔·里特。 阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士。 保罗·维达尔·德拉·布拉什。 贾里德·戴蒙德。 Yifu Tuan。 大卫·哈维。 米尔顿·桑托斯。
All of these geographers spent the greater part of the 18th, 19th and 20th century, hopping about the planet, exploring, mapping, developing theories about cultural, social and political interactions with the environment. Apart from the fact that these men wandered and recorded at will, constructing the enduring fiction of place that has been a thorn in humanity’s side ever since, all of their lines and demarcations are as arbitrary as the cultural narratives that maintain them.
所有这些地理学家都在18世纪、19世纪和20世纪的大部分时间里，在地球上跳跃，探索、绘制地图，发展关于文化、社会和政治与环境相互作用的理论。 除了这些人随意徘徊和记录，构建了自此以来一直是人类眼中钉的地方的持久虚构外，他们所有的线条和界限都和维持它们的文化叙事一样武断。
Now, I am the first one to pull up Google maps when trying to get from A to B. I will also use the navigation app to accompany me as I walk this distance, even if it is a straight line.
現在，我是第一個在試圖從A到B時調出谷歌地圖的人。當我走這條距離時，我也會使用導航應用程式陪伴我，即使是一條直線。
These Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are what allow us to travel the world virtually and keep those of us little gifted in the art of orienteering from wandering into the woods and never being seen again. Pre-GIS technology, I was the person who put the map on the ground and stood on it to orient myself. I followed Sat. Navs down roads where no roads existed. I have always known on a deeply intuitive level that maps were, at best, placeholders for the actual lived experience.
这些地理信息系统（GIS）使我们能够以虚拟方式环游世界，并让我们这些在定向越野艺术方面没有什么天赋的人免于在树林里徘徊，再也看不到了。 在GIS技术之前，我是把地图放在地上，站在上面定位自己的人。 我跟着Sat。 导航沿着没有道路的道路行驶。 我一直很直观地知道，地图充其量是实际生活经验的占位符。
So it’s important to note this deep respect for geographers and cartographers in some respects.
因此，重要的是要注意在某些方面对地理学家和制图师的深深尊重。
However, these maps and depictions of the natural world are as illusory as the construct of time or money or any of the other fanciful human stories we tell ourselves to get a little comfort from the chaos of life.
然而，这些自然世界的地图和描述就像时间或金钱的构造，或者我们为了从生活的混乱中得到一点安慰而告诉自己的任何其他奇思妙想的人类故事，都是虚幻的。
Chickens don’t worry about boundaries or mortgages, whales are oblivious to international waters, goats barely even respect the laws of gravity, never mind boundaries and borders.
鸡不担心边界或抵押，鲸鱼对国际水域一无所知，山羊甚至几乎不尊重万有引力定律，更不用说边界和边界了。
In the history of evolution, human-kind is a relatively new kid on the block, and yet our faith in our meta-narratives and social constructs is bordering on the obscene.
在进化史上，人类是一个相对较新的孩子，然而我们对元叙事和社会结构的信仰接近于淫秽。
Maps are not the territory.
地图不是领土。
In fact, it may come as some surprise to learn that there is no entirely accurate map projection of the world in existence. Many of the representations of the globe that populated the walls of our childhood classroom are grossly distorted in terms of size and position of land masses, and depending on your age, may be entirely inaccurate in terms of land demarcation. Take, for example, the Yugoslavia on the maps of my youth.
事实上，得知不存在对现存世界的完全准确的地图投影可能会有些惊讶。 在我们童年教室的墙壁上，许多地球的表示在土地的大小和位置上都严重扭曲，根据你的年龄，在土地划界方面可能完全不准确。 以我青春地图上的南斯拉夫为例。
The most accurate representation to date of our shared abode is the AuthaGraph Map, created in 1999 by Hajime Narukawa, and it looks nothing like the prota-map many of us hold in our mind’s eye. As with all meta narratives, without a circumspect interrogation of perspective, purpose, and omissions, maps can distort our view of reality and divide us.
迄今为止，我们共同住所最准确的代表是Hajime Narukawa于1999年创建的AuthaGraph地图，它看起来与我们许多人脑海中的原型地图完全相同。 与所有元叙事一样，如果没有对视角、目的和遗漏的谨慎质疑，地图可能会扭曲我们对现实的看法，并分裂我们。
These lines we draw across landscapes, labeling territories as if the earth itself recognises such boundaries, are but alpha attempts to create a sense of security and place.
我们穿过风景画的这些线条，给领土贴上标签，就好像地球本身认识到了这样的边界，只是阿尔法试图创造一种安全感和地方感。
But as we move towards a meta-humanity, our understanding of place and personhood must too evolve.
但随着我们走向元人性，我们对地方和人格的理解也必须不断发展。
The rise of nationalism in the 20th century saw the revision of the lines we draw and the names we call the places we live. But it also witnessed some of the most shameful and heinous atrocities ever recorded too, atrocities that should have tempered the bile of nationalistic war mongering ever since. Rivers deep and mountains high care not a jot for sterile cartography. No map can stop and earthquake or volcano eruption.
20世紀民族主義的興起，修改了我们画的界限和命名了我们居住的地方。 但它也目睹了一些有史以來最可恥和最令人髮指的暴行，這些暴行本應從那時起削弱民族主義戰爭的膽汁。 河流深，山高，不是无菌制图的记号。 没有地图可以阻止地震或火山爆发。
Our maps split up bio regions and watersheds without concern for natural divisions. They slice through ecosystems, separating their deeply interconnected parts.
我们的地图划分了生物区域和流域，不考虑自然划分。 它们分割生态系统，分离它们相互联系的深度部分。
A forest knows no border, yet our maps would have us believe a tree in one spot belongs to a different place than its neighbour mere metres away. Animals roam freely across terrain, yet are expected to respect lines drawn on paper that mean nothing to their instincts.
森林没有边界，但我们的地图会让我们相信，一个地方的树与它只有几米远的邻居属于不同的地方。 动物在地形上自由漫游，但应该尊重纸上画的线条，这些线条对它们的本能毫无意义。
Even the names we give locations are but fanciful notions, attempts to tame wildness and make it familiar.
甚至我们给位置的名字也只是奇思妙想，试图驯服野性，让它变得熟悉。
The winds that whip the sense out of the West Coast of Ireland’s inhabitants will blow long after the lines that divide the North and South of my country have been forgotten.
在分隔我国南北的界限被遺忘很久之后，鞭打愛爾蘭西海岸居民的風將吹出理智。
Constantinople, The Ashanti Empire, The Kingdom of Scotland are nowhere to be found on any map projections in the 21st century, but they existed nonetheless. There are no maps for the moments in each life that are objectively more important than any line on any map in any time or space; those moments where time stops and a touch or a word or a smile is absorbed into the timeless fabric of memory forever. Our place names are as transient as the cultures that coined them, yet we act as if they reflect eternal truths about a landscape’s identity.
君士坦丁堡、阿散蒂帝国、苏格兰王国在21世纪的任何地图投影中都找不到，但它们仍然存在。 生活中没有地图在任何时间或空间中客观上比任何地图上的任何线条都更重要；那些时间停止，触摸、一个字或微笑被永远吸收到永恒的记忆结构中的时刻。 我們的地名和創造地名的文化一樣是短暫的，但我們表現得好像它們反映了關於景觀身份的永恒真理。
Which is rich, coming from the world’s biggest fan of the personal tour guide in my phone, I am the first to appreciate the irony.
這很豐富，來自我手機上私人導遊的世界上最大的粉絲，我是第一個欣賞這種諷刺的人。
But we must recognise the limitations of these lines drawn by people who did not always have the broadest perspective nor the foresight to understand the potential for harm these assignations of place could hold.
但我们必须认识到这些界限的局限性，这些人并不总是拥有最宽广的视野，也没有远见卓识，无法理解这些位置分配可能造成的潜在伤害。
After all, maps are created by fallible humans with their own biases and agendas, whether nationalistic, commercial, or otherwise. Boundaries drawn for political convenience, with little regard for natural or cultural realities on the ground can be weaponised to the detriment of humanity as a whole.
毕竟，地图是由容易犯的人类创建的，他们有自己的偏见和议程，无论是民族主义、商业主义还是其他。 為政治便利而劃定的界限，很少考慮地面上的自然或文化現實，可以武器化，損害全人類。
So the next time you glance at a map, or Google sends you down a left hand turn where ostensibly you see nothing but a wall, take a beat. Look past the names and borders to appreciate the true glorious chaos that is our story of the world, told by a homo-sapien bipod, cursed with consciousness and anxiety.
因此，下次你瞥了一眼地图，或者谷歌让你左转，表面上你只看到一堵墙，请拍拍一下。 越过名字和边界，欣赏真正光荣的混乱，这是我们的世界故事，由一个被意识和焦虑诅咒的智人双脚架讲述。
Maps are but one of the greatest of human fictions, useful as guides but not reflections of deeper human truths. And certainly not reflective of the lives that occupy these very real territories that evade simple lines on paper.
地图只是人类最伟大的虚构之一，作为指南很有用，但不能反映更深层次的人类真理。 當然，它不反映那些在紙上逃避簡單線條的非常真實的領土的生活。
Those deeper truths are the ones that will be told long after we are no more, and our maps from today have been forgotten in living memory. We must be careful not to wander down roads where no roads exist.
这些更深层次的真相将在我们离去很久之后被讲述，我们今天的地图在活生生的记忆中被遗忘。 我们必须小心，不要在没有道路的道路上徘徊。
Just what is it for which we wish to be remembered?
我们希望被人记住的是什么？
