We have always sought a map to place where we are in the world. Not just on earth but in the heavens as well. For thousands of years Aristotle and Ptolemy's Earth-centred model dominated. It was displaced by Copernicus and the Sun-centred solar system we all take for granted. And today many cosmologists believe we can capture a picture of the universe itself. But critics argue such a map is impossible. From Earth, the Sun appears to move around us, yet from the perspective of the solar system, the galaxy, and the cosmic microwave background, each cosmic scale offers a different view of motion and structure. Some imagined the microwave background would provide a universal rest frame, but recent observations reveal unevenness, reminding us that we have no final vantage point from which to view the universe.
Is the idea of an objective and universal map of the cosmos illusory? Should we accept that we can give no account of where we are in the universe? Or might we one day map the universe as it truly is, and what might it in principle look like?
