To see this point clearly, think of a blossom in a painting rendered photographic in detail and as beautiful as life. In our minds the macroscopic entity has truth because it matches real flowers sprung from the soil. From a distance we might easily confuse the image with the real thing. But the algorithms that created it are radically different. Its microscopic elements are flakes of paint instead of chromosomes and cells. Its developmental pathways exist in the brain of the artist, not in prescription by DNA of the unfolding of tissues. How do theoreticians know that their
Plato's allegory of thee cave
