The map is not the territory, or is it?

As a child, and inspired by the maps of Treasure Island and the Famous Five, I sometimes used to produce my own fictional maps.  Maps were a way of processing the world,  making sense of it and even highlighting areas still to be explored.

But Alford Korzybski's dictum:

The map is not the territory

 reminds us not to get caught up in the idea that maps are reality - but rather a sanitised version of it.

But I've been fascinated by the idea that perhaps there might  be situations when the map might actually be the territory.  The obvious one, of course, is virtual reality.