This gave a satisfying "click" of how the Simulacra and Staghunt concepts fit together.  Things I would consider changing: 1. Lion Parable. In the comments, John expands on this post with a parable about lion-hunters who believe in "magical protection against lions." That parable is actually what I normally think of when I think of this post, and I was sad to learn it wasn't actually in the post. I'd add it in, maybe as the opening example. 2. Do we actually need the word "simulacrum 3"? Something on my mind since last year's review is "how much work are the words "simulacra" doing for us? I feel vaguely like I learned something from Simulacra Levels and their Interactions, but the concept still feels overly complicated as a dependency to explain new concepts. If I read this post in the wild without having spent awhile grokking Simulacra I think I'd find it pretty confusing. But, meanwhile, the original sequences talked about "belief in belief". I think that's still a required dependency here, but, a) Belief in Belief is a shorter post, and I think b) I think this post + the literal words "belief in belief" helps grok the concept in the first place. On the flipside, I think the Simulacra concept does help point towards an overall worldview about what's going on in society, in a gnarlier way than belief-in-belief communicates. I'm confused here. Important Context A background thing in my mind whenever I read one of these coordination posts is an older John post: From Personal to Prison Gangs. We've got Belief-in-Belief/Simulacra3 as Stag Hunt strategies. Cool. They still involve... like, falsehoods and confusion and self-deception. Surely we shouldn't have to rely on that? My hope is yes, someday. But I don't know how to reliably do it at scale yet. I want to just quote the end of the prison gangs piece: [...]

Most of the writing on simulacrum levels have left me feeling less able to reason about them, that they are too evil to contemplate. This post engaged with them as one fact in the world among many, which was already an improvement. I've found myself referring to this idea several times over the last two years, and it left me more alert to looking for other explanations in this class.