Reflections on 'On Exactitude in Science' by Jorge Luis Borges

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In this micro-story, a generation of cartographers pursue their art to such an extreme that they produce a map as vast and detailed as the empire itself. Later generations, concerned only with its utility, abandon it as useless.

This reflects the tension between perfection and usefulness in representation: a model approaching total fidelity risks becoming indistinguishable from reality—and therefore useless.