« First Manifestoes for Monstrosity | Main | El Dorado, Colonisation, my first metaphor »
September 06, 2005
Dangerous Maps
"Maps have long been seen as a security risk: they provide valuable information that may, like any information, be used for malevolent purposes. Early modern kingdoms feared the consequences of one of their maps falling into their enemiesí hands. More recently, the Soviet Union regularly published misinformation on its official maps as a security measure: a sensitive location or installation could be moved or left off the map altogether. I was reminded of this when I read this Washington Post story about a George Mason University graduate student whose thesis research ó which apparently maps the entire American fibre-optic network, but the paper is being unsurprisingly imprecise about it ó is getting attention for its potential to be exploited by terrorists as a map of sensitive points in the U.S. infrastructure. The government wants to classify his research; the student is worried about finishing his degree."
I got this from someone else's blog (http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2003_07_01_archive.phtml), thought it was interesting in relation to the use of monsters on map to scare or discourage people from venturing in a certain direction . . . . in particular the idea of publishing mis-information.
Posted by Luke Wood at September 6, 2005 10:46 AM