8. Into the Future

8.1 Toward the virtual map

New systems allow computers to simulate and model reality by using visual and auditory cues in three dimensions. These same systems might be used to create virtual maps in which users can traverse and study real and simulated environments and landscapes. At issue here is not just how these systems might be developed and employed, but also how they crosscut cartography's core concern of abstracting, simplifying and symbolizing real-world phenomena and relationships. Cartography is a process of interpretation and representation in which the map maker draws attention to critical relationships and patterns. The question is really how can this interpretive and representational task be carried forward into in virtual reality? How will cartographers be employed in cyberspace?

Mapping systems allow cartographers to draft as easily in three dimensions as two. Furthermore, many mapping and drafting systems are clones or close cousins of those used for animation. Such capabilities present cartographers with interesting opportunities to model temporal relationships, reconstruct past environments, or simulate complex processes. Could historical geographers reconstruct past environments in three dimensions or ecologists animate processes of landscape transformation? Tremendous innovation seems arrayed along the horizons of cartography.