[kelseyfrog]

> The model itself isn't separate from the world but produced materially

To me this is like drawing a circuit diagram on a piece of paper and trying to convince someone that, "Really there is electricity flowing through it."

Models are relations between signifiers. There exists a transformation between the signified relations and the relations of the signifiers, but they are, in fact, two separate categories and the transformation isn't bijective. ie it doesn't form an isomorphism.