Comment on How were maps created back in the day?
Phunter@lemmy.zip 5 days ago
Your question is not stupid, but it is overly vague and broad. An equally vague and broad answer would be: "They did their best with the tools and knowledge they had, tried to copy other cartographer’s work (and failing that, their techniques), and otherwise just guessed. Failingthat, they made it up in ways that would benefit themselves the most.
Source: I read the Map Men’s book not too long ago.
snowydroopz@lemmy.world 5 days ago
There is nothing broad about their questions, it’s literally a straightforward and to the point question. Though not stupid.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 5 days ago
Er, not really… for instance:
Which ‘day’? Before digital mapping? Before cartography as a formal practice? Before the invention of the compass? Before the standardization of the meter? Before the printing press? Before Galileo? Before Eratosthenes?
The time period of the question is potentially the entirety of human history. That’s quite broad.
In which part of the world? In which culture? For what purpose? (e.g. navigation? coastal, inland, international? crop planting? city planning? determining property lines? etc)
This is.not a straightforward question in any way. A complete answer would be an undergraduate degree with a double major in history and geography.
snowydroopz@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Oh fuck off mate, anything “back in the day” just means before tech, if you wanna pick a specific timeline, go for it, but thats cause you wanna talk about a specific timeline. You can answer the question through any pre-google maps timeline and no one would question you for shit, this isnt your prof. history class, it’s some dude that prolly just had a wank and mid post nut clarity went “how the fuck did me great granddaddy get around the country?”
As for methods, same basic concept as my first question, answer with whatever knowledge you have, but mapping, 95% of the time would be how to get from your hour to trader joe’s.
otp@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
Please step down from your high horse.
“Before tech” and “great granddaddy” and “local Trader Joe’s” are 3 different time periods. Sure they could’ve just chosen one, but it might not be what OP was curious about.
An individual who’s curious enough to ask the question would probably be curious enough to further drill down to a specific time period that they’re curious about. This could have led into good discussion.
If you want something that just tells you an answer and doesn’t question you or ask you to clarify, then you can use an LLM. If you want conversation, you can use Lemmy.