Forgive the lack of effort today (or don’t, I don’t particularly care) but I’m sat on my sofa, it’s 4:25pm on a Saturday, it’s 105°F outside, and I haven’t made a map for tomorrow’s post in this apparently divisive series. So I thought I’d just see if I can make a map using AI on my phone. And the day’s theme worked well for a cheesy, throwaway map-gag that’s been made before such as by Lewis Carroll in “The Hunting of the Snark”. Maybe the LLM has read it? I didn’t prompt it in this direction but it went there anyway.

Is it a map? Well, it’s got a border, title, subtitle, legend, scale bar, and ridiculous north arrow. Nice layout. Well designed.

It’s now 4:39pm. Job done. Not great. Possibly not even good. But maybe it raises a small smile from one or two people in passing. And frankly, that’ll do me. Enjoy the rest of your day, and seize what you can!

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

In celebration of ‘All or nothing’ day I’d like to see you create a map that literally shows nothing. The day itself is designed to encourage people to seize the day (Carpe Diem!) and for them to perhaps do things they may have been fearful of doing. The implication is they will end up with all, or nothing. But they will have tried. So what happens if the map I ask you to make is the exact opposite of every other map I make… It shows nothing. I’ve never tried that before.