We say the map is different from the territory. But what is the
territory? Operationally, somebody went out with a retina or a
measuring stick and made representations which were then put on
paper. What is on the paper map is a representation of what was in
the retinal representation of the man who made the map; and as you
push the question back, what you find is an infinite regress, an
infinite series of maps. The territory never gets in at all. [...]
Always, the process of representation will filter it out so that
the mental world is only maps of maps, ad infinitum."
-- Gregory Bateson, "Form, Substance and Difference,"
(1970) in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972).