Simacrulum
See also:   [Clone]
            [Simulation]
            [Authenticity and Originality]
            [Autographnic vs Allographic]

            [Philip K. Dick]
            [The Performed WEB (including programming)]
            [Realism Now (essay by Linda Nochlin)]

Simulacrum

A simacrulum is something that looks/acts like a certain thing.
However, un-like a clone or a duplicate of the orignal its
internal design, behaviour, appearance may vary. 

Thus, in ST-TNG ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"), Commander
Data (portrayed by Brent Spiner) is a simacrulum of a human.
His behaviour (eg, he can-not or will-not use contractions of
verbs) mimics (or at least partially reproduces) that of humans.

The concept of an "ersatz" thing ??defn?? can represent both the 
simarcrulum and the clone of a thing - but probably not both
simultaneously.


Important works


Chronology