I don’t know if this is a confusion, per se, but I dislike that there’s this undertone in the model that everything above the first level is progressively worse. I mean, sure, it’s worse for some purposes, but this quickly fades into the background and becomes a model about what’s worse within a particular worldview and for particular purposes.
Complaints that any particular simulacrum level get in the way of truth is not very interesting to someone who doesn’t actually care much about truth, and instead is more concerned with, say, social harmony or power. And you might say, well, the posts acknowledge that, but it’s done in a way that makes it very clear there are taken-for-granted reasons why truth is the most import thing that won’t connect for anyone for whom this isn’t true.
When I look at the theory of simulacrum levels I have a reaction like “yeah, that’s cool, I get what you’re saying, but also you have to communicate at all the levels concurrently all the time anyway, so stop whining about it and get on with living with humans as they are rather than pining for some ideal world that doesn’t exist.” Not the most charitable reaction, and again not exactly a confusion, but I bring this up because I could see this manifesting as confusion for someone who similarly sees this problem but doesn’t quite have the words to put to it.
I don’t know if this is a confusion, per se, but I dislike that there’s this undertone in the model that everything above the first level is progressively worse. I mean, sure, it’s worse for some purposes, but this quickly fades into the background and becomes a model about what’s worse within a particular worldview and for particular purposes.
Complaints that any particular simulacrum level get in the way of truth is not very interesting to someone who doesn’t actually care much about truth, and instead is more concerned with, say, social harmony or power. And you might say, well, the posts acknowledge that, but it’s done in a way that makes it very clear there are taken-for-granted reasons why truth is the most import thing that won’t connect for anyone for whom this isn’t true.
When I look at the theory of simulacrum levels I have a reaction like “yeah, that’s cool, I get what you’re saying, but also you have to communicate at all the levels concurrently all the time anyway, so stop whining about it and get on with living with humans as they are rather than pining for some ideal world that doesn’t exist.” Not the most charitable reaction, and again not exactly a confusion, but I bring this up because I could see this manifesting as confusion for someone who similarly sees this problem but doesn’t quite have the words to put to it.