Scott Simpson · Poetry
V. Simulation
The World We Mean · Illusion, Simulation, and Trust · Singing · V. Simulation
All poetryThe original line breaks, stanza spacing, and placement are preserved. Long lines scroll horizontally.
Poem segment 1
V. Simulation
A simulation is useful
until you forget
it is a simulation.
Pilots practice storms
inside dark machines.
Children feed digital animals
that never truly hunger.
Someone falls in love
with a version of another person
built mostly from messages.
Representation begins replacing contact.
The menu becomes the meal.
AI language lives near that border.
It is not the world.
It is language
about the world,
reassembled into convincing weather.
Sometimes accurate.
Sometimes strangely hollow.
But fluency blurs the boundary.
The response arrives quickly enough
that you stop asking
what experience
is underneath it—
if any.
And slowly
the model starts wearing
the face of reality.
Copyright Scott Simpson, All Rights Reserved