Thump. Wallop. Whack. Smack   ::words can make a difference.

Bloggart: a presumptuous blogger. One who chain blogs oft-repeated themes as if familiar readers are ever-returning for the latest context-lacking details and/or as if new readers should review past posts to grab some context for themselves.  I know you’re Alexander.  But I will not bow down to you unless you tell/show me how you conquered the world. 

Humphrey Bloggart:  a presumptuous blogger who skips blogging on Wednesdays.

Maps are relational representations of some reality or some imagined reality.  Most often they are much smaller than the reality they represent.  But that isn’t a prerequisite.  Something that is (somewhat) a map of itself would only be as large as itself and could be any size.  Having my internal organs tattooed full-sized on my outer skin in precise positioning might be one way to achieve self-mapping.  A practice golf swing maps the swing.  The invisible charged lattice work from the ground upward of a bolt of lightning maps the lightning’s subsequent release groundward.  So it is somewhat possible.  Things can be (kind-of)  maps of themselves.

But what of a map which is a map of itself?  Would it map anything? 

Well, it must since otherwise there would be no relational linking possible and every blank sheet of paper would be a map of itself (maybe they are!).  On the other hand, it can’t since in mapping it wouldn’t be “referencing” but simply being.  So a map that is a map of itself must and cannot map! 

It’s also possible that a map can be larger than the thing it maps.  The tattoos of the organs on my body could be slightly oversized, for instance.  But is a map of the universe that is larger than itself possible?  Might not such an over-mapped universe constitute maya (illusion) with the map being mistaken for the underlying reality?   hrmm...

*This post was brought to you  by the machine part    

and the letter “U” and constitutes a near perfect map of itself.