A totem’s evidence test cannot distinguish dream from reality by construction.

Evidence

Many have noted the inadequacy of this supposed proof. At best, it can only establish that Cobb is not in his ‘own’ dream, for what is there to stop his dreaming mind simulating the properties of the real thimble? Besides, in the film’s chronology, the thimble – that ostensible token of the empirical actual – first of all appears as a virtual object, secreted by Mal inside a doll’s house in Limbo. And a totem, it should be remembered, is an object of faith (it’s worth noting in passing that there are many references to faith throughout the film). — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 528

Categorization

• QUESTION: Whether any empirical experiment can work as a reality-test when the experiment’s own objects are in doubt recalls Descartes’ malin genie.
• XREF: connects to: Puzzling fictions work by violating self-imposed rules, not by ignoring them. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 517; An implanted idea persists unchanged even after its context is restored. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 519; Inception’s seemingly stable dream hierarchy is undermined by its own totem object. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 528