---
title: "Recursive Modeling"
description: "Antikythera's label for de Monchaux's thesis in Some Movements of Models; the essay never says \"recursive.\" From the Panama Canal's 1914 lock model, whose Selsyn motors turned in step with the real…"
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/recursive-modeling"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/recursive-modeling"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Recursive Modeling

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/recursive-modeling), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

Antikythera's label for de Monchaux's thesis in Some Movements of Models; the essay never says "recursive." From the Panama Canal's 1914 lock model, whose Selsyn motors turned in step with the real gates, through naval fire control, the SCR-584 radar, SAGE and Apollo's simulators, he shows control systems in which the model does not stand beside reality but steers it, so model and world shape each other. Two corollaries follow. Theory came second: cybernetics and information theory arose in feedback with these machines, not ahead of them (after Mindell). And the model migrated inward, from sunlit lockhouse to bunkers, windowless SAGE floors and finally the Black Box, ending in the Paradox of Simulation. Bratton's Reflexive vs. Recursive Simulation names the same loop approvingly, via MacKenzie's "an engine not a camera"; Maughan's Digital Twin makes it a goal. De Monchaux alone insists the tightening loop is paid for in opacity.

## Appears in

- [Some Movements of Models](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/movementsofmodels) (2026-04-09)
- [Infinity Mirror](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/infinitymirror) (2025-05-10)
- [For a General Theory of Simulations](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/theoryofsim) (2025-05-10)
- [After Alignment](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/afteralignment) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._