This question arose for me upon seeing for the ninth time the movie, "The Matrix." The Matrix through drama displays the two - simulation (simulacra) vs. reality.
Simulacra is that which we, the person, creates as a representation of something - reality based training. Simulacrum is something that replaces reality with its representation - our version of reality based training.
I have come to realize that simply naming or calling a training scenario "realty training" is a false name giving a false sense of ability that cannot ever span the gap between that which is real - true violence, predatory and fighting. Read the excerpt, "The Strategy of the Real," by Jean Baudrillard as translated by Sheila Glaser and you get that sense of every attempt to truly simulate reality either fails or becomes reality.
The conclusion is that we can provide training that can get us closer to reality but never truly reality. Simply naming it reality training is an oxymoron for reality is never training. Reality is experience - simple and truthful, not training.
Baudrillard speaks of, "the difficulty is proportional to the danger." As violence involves danger to the self at extremes the only way you could prepare for it is to experience it. Reality scenario's will not reach the appropriate state because that means it must be proportional to reality. That itself takes out any and all safety and puts the person into experiencing the threat.
Baudrillard states emphatically that "you must remain close to the truth, in order to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulacrum. You will not be able to do it!" Reality training is an oxymoron - it is not reality - it is not experience.
Maybe reality training could become doable if we simply said it was, "Simulation Training." There does not seem to be any feasible way to describe the attempt to train for the experience of real life violence. You have to experience the real thing - not recommended, not ever.
" ... , it is not impossible to isolate the process of the real or to prove the real." - Jean Baudrillard
Bibliography:
Baudrillard, Jean with Glaser, Sheila Faria translator. "Simulacra and Simulation." University of Michigan Press. 1995 (ISBN-10: 0472065211)
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