Modeling the Earth : a Short History

Models are partial mirrors, reflecting how humans perceive the world around them. I trace the history of modeling the geographic world from early description and representation in the form of drawings and stick maps to today's geographic information systems. Representations have grown more complex and detailed with time, but no less partial in the sense that their content tells only part of the story, and never tells any part exactly. I argue that representation is cyclical: an approach is adopted in response to some kind of technological advance; it is found to be partially successful, and is adapted and stretched to include phenomena for which it was not designed; and finally as stresses build a new approach is adopted that exploits advances in technology. I examine the current situation in this context, and argue that the cycle will repeat itself before long.