Maps and the hell of the same

Early European explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha attempt to take power over the world they encounter by mapping it (conceptually and literally). For Franco Farinelli, our maps do not represent the earth so much as the earth has come to take the form of our maps. This has the effect of smoothing over all meaningful alterity and reducing the world to what Byung-Chul Han has referred to as the “Hell of the same."