The focus on model network is to evaluate properties of the statistical methods being used based on simulation results. However, this evaluation requires essential questions to be answered: definition and specification of “reality” and its successful “simulation (hyperreality)”. We introduced mathematical symbols and computer codes to represent the true data generating process (reality).

I borrowed the term hyperreality from Baudrillard’s philosophy on simulation. He claimed human experience is a simulation of reality in that our society replaced reality with symbols. The hyperreal is perceived more real than reality and in reverse controls the reality. Yet determination itself is aleatory in a non-linear world where it is impossible to chart causal mechanisms in a situation in which individuals are confronted with an overwhelming flux of images, codes, and models, any of which may shape an individual’s thought or behavior. Aleatory and epistemic uncertainty (well-explained as unknowable and unknown to me by O’Hagan’s writing) or quantum walk (unknowable without making a measurement—a transaction—that in turn changes it) could be a relevant subject which I aim to delve into during my PhD. It is my dream to write a book on “simulation on generative model classes” once I reach a certain milestone. I am logging the excerpts and contents of simulation chapters from textbooks here.

For detailed explanation on Baudrillard’s philosophy on simulation, refer to his book “Simulacra and Simulation” or this writing.