If the world does not exist without us then it can be thought of as an extension of ourselves, expressed in systems. It has to be thought of that way anyway, since we are the ones thinking it. Architecture is the most basic of these systems, essentially because it involves establishing a place for ourselves, or oneself, whether one is an architect or not. Of course, architecture is inevitably mediated and determined by other systems–religious, social, political, commercial, musical, chemical, etc.–but none of these is as immediate or physical as architecture, which is materially coexistent with us and can be touched. Walls, floors, and ceilings measure our space, our limits, just as other systems do immaterially. The more we know, the more limits we have, and architecture literally defines our limits.