|
Representing Reality: Perception of Space |
|
|
 Representing reality involves simplification. Representations are almost always incomplete and imperfect Representation is a means to convey information. The real world is complex. To convey information of the real world effectively, representations are often simplified and standardized. If a representation has too much detail:
- It could be cluttered/incomprehensible
- Information could be irrelevant
- It could be too expensive
- Data volume could be unmanageable
It is very important to know what is missing in the representation. All representations are imperfect.
To represent the reality the human mind makes a mental picture of reality. It perceives the space in reality (in a region) in two different ways.
- As discrete objects or features (eg. houses, bridges, terrace farms, impact craters etc.)
- As a field that is continuous and for which the values change as function of distance and time (eg. atmospheric pressure or sea surface temperature)
In practice if we focus in greater detail on smaller regions, zooming in on a seemingly continuous region, continuous measurements become discrete.
|
