---
title: "Reflexive vs. Recursive Simulation"
description: "Bratton's two feedback principles for a general theory of simulations."
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/reflexive-vs-recursive-simulation"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/reflexive-vs-recursive-simulation"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Reflexive vs. Recursive Simulation

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

Bratton's two feedback principles for a general theory of simulations. *Recursive* simulations "directly and automatically affect what they simulate" and are updated by it (MacKenzie's financial models as "an engine not a camera"; insurance pricing the future into the present). *Reflexive* simulations close the loop through interpretation: actors mobilise "to fulfil or prevent a future that is implied by a simulation" (climate politics against 2050; scenario planning; Oedipus). The text is unstable on whether these are siblings or reflexivity is the "most nuanced" sub-type of recursion. Distinct from the journal's **Recursive Modeling** (adds de Monchaux's opacity paradox) and **Recursive Governance** (the political extension).

## Appears in

- [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)
- [Speculative Philosophy of Planetary Computation](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/spoc) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._