Beyond the Flat World Metaphor

Abstract

Imagining the world as flat is a useful way of conceiving the world when navigating local landscapes. Looking at the world around us, the world is flat, at least for most of our practical purposes. As curiosity deepens and horizons expand, however, the utility of this metaphor diminishes drastically.

Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

We have to be the masters of our imagination, not the prisoners.

—Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century