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"Is economics like physics, or more like history? Steven Pinker says, "No sane thinker would try to explain World War I in the language of physics." Yet some economists aim close to such craziness. Pinker says the "mindset of science" eliminates errors by "open debate, peer review, and double-blind methods," and especially, experimentation. But experiments require repetition and control over all relevant variables. We can experiment on individual behavior, but not with history or macroeconomics."

""Maps don't just show the world - they change the world," says the geographer Mark Graham. "They affect how we interact with the world and understand the world. In doing so, they shape the world itself." Residents couldn't prove it, exactly, but they believed the Google Maps error was both a symptom and cause of their displacement. "They took our name from us and no one knew about it," Hemphill-Nichols says. "Once you take our identity, you plan to take everything else.""