Nice write up, I believe I have a better grasp of simulacra levels after this post.
(Think this is missing 1-3 additional roles. Discussion question, what is The Idealist?)
I’ll take this as an exercise for the readers.
I’ll start with a definition of how I see The Idealist: The Idealist is someone with an ideal of how people should act to have the best consequences in the world. In the most simple case this could simply be someone that believes the truth to be most important and that everyone should stay in Level 1. However, this type of idealist could ironically be seen as a Level 2 move: “I’m telling the truth so that you will stay on Level 1 and tell the truth as well”.
It becomes more complicated when the implications of the ideal affects higher simulacra levels. Consider an idealist with the ideal that intelligence is the most important and that advanced communication and progressively higher level reasoning is the way to achieve this. This way you value the complexity arising in Level 4 and you want people to see your group as good and that they move to a higher level.
In common, the types of idealist I can imagine want to affect the map so that people act in accordance with their ideal (Level 2 move), but they also want their group to be perceived as the cool group and will say things that will make undecided people move towards their group (Level 4 move). Therefore I would say that The Idealist is a Level 2 + Level 4 player. Furthermore, The Idealist only says something if it improves both how others perceive the map and how other value the in group (relative to the out group).
I don’t know if this is roughly what you had in mind when you thought about The Idealist, but this is my stab at the problem.
Nice write up, I believe I have a better grasp of simulacra levels after this post.
I’ll take this as an exercise for the readers.
I’ll start with a definition of how I see The Idealist: The Idealist is someone with an ideal of how people should act to have the best consequences in the world. In the most simple case this could simply be someone that believes the truth to be most important and that everyone should stay in Level 1. However, this type of idealist could ironically be seen as a Level 2 move: “I’m telling the truth so that you will stay on Level 1 and tell the truth as well”.
It becomes more complicated when the implications of the ideal affects higher simulacra levels. Consider an idealist with the ideal that intelligence is the most important and that advanced communication and progressively higher level reasoning is the way to achieve this. This way you value the complexity arising in Level 4 and you want people to see your group as good and that they move to a higher level.
In common, the types of idealist I can imagine want to affect the map so that people act in accordance with their ideal (Level 2 move), but they also want their group to be perceived as the cool group and will say things that will make undecided people move towards their group (Level 4 move). Therefore I would say that The Idealist is a Level 2 + Level 4 player. Furthermore, The Idealist only says something if it improves both how others perceive the map and how other value the in group (relative to the out group).
I don’t know if this is roughly what you had in mind when you thought about The Idealist, but this is my stab at the problem.