Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
communications greatly extended the spatiality of the present moment, mak-
ing the “now” something that stretched worldwide. It is no coincidence that
much of the art, literature and science of the era was concerned with simul-
taneity. In Kirby's (1996:71) words, “The distinctions between widely separ-
ated geographical entities lose their meaning as disparate sites themselves
come together in a plastic network making proximity and separation relative
and mutable.” Location, in short, became increasingly a matter of production
and negotiation rather than being given
a priori
.
Relative space and relativity
Among the innumerous scienti
c and artistic discoveries of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries, the theory of relativity holds special signifi-
fi
-
cance. This set of ideas, which both echoed and facilitated the transition into
postmodernity, had deep roots in Western intellectual history. As early as
1676, for example, Danish astronomer Ole Rømer of
fi
first estimate of
the speed of light. The theory of relativity drew heavily upon a nineteenth-
century invention, non-Euclidean geometry; in the 1850s, German mathemat-
ician Bernhard Riemann opened the door to fantastically complex topologies
in which space took
ff
ered the
fi
flight from the simple world of the isotropic plane to
become a doughnut, tunnel, or even more bizarre con
fl
fi
gurations. Similarly,
Hermann Minkowski of
ed
space-time. The theory of relativity, and all that it implied for the analysis of
space-time, was also pre
ff
ered great insights into the mathematics of a uni
fi
gured by the great French mathematician of non-
Euclidean geometry and head of the French Bureau of Longitude, Henri
Poincaré, in the 1890s (Galison 2003), who dismissed absolute time as a social
convention, a pragmatic representation chosen not because it is inherently,
objectively “correct” but because it is convenient in simplifying complex
problems. Likewise, he argued against the inherent necessity of Euclidean
geometry, asserting its popularity stemmed not from innate superiority but
only from its utility in everyday life (Miller 2002).
In the late nineteenth century the measurement of time and space was both
a philosophical and pragmatic undertaking. The issue of simultaneity in par-
ticular was much more than just an abstract intellectual or technical problem,
but a pressing social and economic one, i.e., a pragmatic as well as philo-
sophical concern. For purposes that require precise de
fi
nitions of space and
time (e.g., surveying, cartography, navigation, engineering), the measurement
of distance and thus location is possible only because a signal is sent from one
place to another. Yet this inference itself relies on knowledge of the velocity
of the signal. “Thus we are faced with a circular argument. To determine
the simultaneity of distant events we need to know a velocity, and to measure
a velocity we require knowledge of the simultaneity of distant events”
(Reichenbach 1958:126). Simultaneity was critical for navigators and carto-
graphers in the exact determination of longitude, train and omnibus com-
panies, telegraph and telephone services, military commanders, surveyors,
fi
Search WWH ::
Custom Search