Copying an original makes both copy and original equally artificial

Evidence

It is possible that the memory of the original grottoes is itself stamped in the minds of future generations, but from now on there is no longer any difference: the duplication suffices to render both artificial. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 36

Categorization

• DEFINE: The Lascaux replica is Baudrillard’s cleanest illustration of how simulation dissolves the distinction between original and copy.
• XREF: connects to: Copying external symbols does not make the copier inauthentic. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 344; A simulacrum is near-perfect replication erasing the original-copy distinction. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1826; Iterability names the process by which repetition both enables and corrupts identity — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 721

Broader Connections

• A simulacrum is near-perfect replication erasing the original-copy distinction. #expands (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1826
• Copying external symbols does not make the copier inauthentic. #contradicts (0.80) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 344