Our place in the universe

@bounder rightly pointed out to me, this is not a sudden societal obsession; it's just that we now have the technology available/ more easily accessible to explore location. Indeed, the human race has always been obsessed with our place in the universe.

Because, really, at the end of the day, geography isn't really just geography. People have fought wars over a few feet of land, and it's not because it's got a particularly nice latitudinal reference. It's how we define ourselves; where we live is also how we live. Geography dictates. I'd still call myself a Scouser and I've lived outside of Liverpool for over 10 years; it's more a part of my identity than an actual physical location.

I would love to say something deeply philosophical here, like that since the advent of the Internet our conception of the world has been so imploded into this global village that we find an ever greater need to find and fix ourselves, physically, in this brave new overwhelming mass of a world. Perhaps there are elements of this, but the desire to try and find our place in the universe is, of course, far older than the internet. It's just given us the tools to do so: in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

In the literal sense, these tools are, of course, simply functional, e.g. locating nearby facilities, getting directions. And it's great that we now have the technology to do these things, and that it's getting more and more accessible.

In fact; it seems that technology has gone some way into solving one of its own problems. @JessGreenwood pointed out to me that for too long we've spent time online interacting with 2-dimensional screens, and now technology is being applied to reconnect us with more human, 3-dimensional spaces; citing emotionalcities as an example of this psycho-geography. This is where the literal and the metaphorical or abstract begin to merge.

@peteashton remarks that geography is often a hook, linking online and offline social spaces. Really, I think this is what it boils down to: our need to connect. Sites such as Brightkite.com are not built on a premise of "I'm in Birmingham" because, frankly, who cares? The question it poses - and answers - is the far more interesting 'Who and what is around me'? i.e. who and what can I connect with? And not just digitally, but actually, physically right now? @editorialgirl pointed out the popularity of aerial view photos; which I thought an interesting point. At the end of the day, I know what my house looks like, so why so satisfying to see it from space? She goes on to ask "Don't most people enjoy seeing where they are in relation to the world?" The operative words here being 'in relation to'. We understand ourselves by our surroundings; the people and the place around us.

A number of years ago I had the slightly bizarre privilege of being part of the Att-Meta project at Birmingham University. This involved the categorisation and analysis of metaphors in both spoken and written language. One of the most common metaphors used (subconsciously) in language is 'Mind as Physical Space' i.e. we almost always talk about how we feel/understand in terms of a physical space. The one reflects the other; e.g.: 'So-and-so is in a bad place right now'. Even the word 'state': is it a geographical or emotional term? More often than not, both. It's how we understand, well, we're we 'at'.

So, I discover that the Internet is not actually doing or revealing anything ground-breakingly new. We're not suddenly obsessed with the idea of 'our place in the universe'; it's just that now we have access to the technology that can 'put us on the map' and all those other psycho-geographical metaphors. There is indeed nothing new under the sun; just new tools for exploring old things.