What is a simulacrum?
Within the framework of the “Deconstruction of Reality” project, the definition of
simulacrum is formulated in connection with the idea of a fundamental limit to knowledge
and the impossibility of fully reproducing the original.
Simulacrum (from Latin simulacrum — image, likeness, phantom) is a created system,
object, or image that reproduces the external appearance, structure, or functions of
an original, but never coincides with it completely and cannot replace genuine reality.
Commentary
A simulacrum is always limited by the tools, methods, or technologies used to create it.
Even with maximally precise copying, there always remains an insurmountable gap between
the original and its simulacrum: a simulacrum is not just a copy, but an inevitably
incomplete, conditional, and in some way false representation of the original.
A simulacrum can be useful as an approximation, model, or illustration, but it cannot convey
the full richness, complexity, and depth of the original phenomenon or reality. Where there
is infinite complexity (for example, as in the case of irrational numbers), the simulacrum
will always be only a resemblance, never the true essence.
Simulacra are an inherent part of any attempt at digital or algorithmic reproduction of the
world: any digital twin is not the original, but only a simulacrum, capable of approaching
the truth, but never fully merging with it.