Map Placement Normalization

We would like to see photo locations spread evenly across a space while preserving relative relations.

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Here we replace lat and lon with rank in lists sorted by lat and lon. The result is surprising. Click to see a place and adjacent locations in rank space mapped in geography.

We see our notion of adjacency is flawed because it computes on each axis independently. This destroys the relations we seek to observe. github

Marc Pierson suggests the human nervous system would offer a better model of what we seek.

The neurons in the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex aren't just thrown together in a big jumble of cells. Instead, they're grouped by body part — all of the hand neurons together, then all of the face neurons, then the tongue neurons and so on, as you can see in the diagram of the motor cortex. Together, they form a full, representative map of your body called a "homunculus," which means "little man" in Latin. npr wikipedia