[verisimi]

I agree so strongly with this.

The point I would add is that hardly anyone uses the empirical process directly. It is all 'this article claims this' or 'this study says that'. It's very 'meta' with little to no personal verification or testing of the claims - ie, theories based on theories or models based on models, or maps based on maps.

Very few check the terrain itself to confirm that the map applies. We trust education, experts, peer review etc. We're drowning in models, especially as these are easily represented on computers, but have no ability to check the models against reality.

PS this disassociation from reality will not improve as we move forward technologically. No doubt, in the metaverse we will be able to create ever more elaborate models, or is it that we will be ever more disassociated from our own anecdotal experiences? (Where 'anecdotal' is something to apologise about).

[atq2119]

In the metaverse, the map is the territory. Think about how the word "map" is used in gaming.

[ClumsyPilot]

And often we have no idea who made a particular model and what are it's limitations.