# cargo cult (ritual)

*Ordinarily means:* copying the outward form of something that worked, without the mechanism that made it work

Maintenance that copies the seen actions of others who got an outcome, under a model reading them as setting it though they set nothing.

- Computed level: L17 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [set](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-set.fix), [illusion of control](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-illusion-of-control.over), [copy](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-copy.replication), [see](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-see.visual), [action](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-action.deed), [others](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-others.distinct-entities), [get](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-get.acquisition), [outcome](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-outcome.result), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [nothing](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-nothing.absence)

**Through:** The copy is faithful to what could be seen and blind to what did the work; the model links action to outcome through a mechanism it never held, so maintenance runs on indefinitely without any feedback it can read.

**Novel properties:**
- form copied without mechanism
- maintenance that never stops because nothing reports failure
- another's reach mistaken for a sequence of actions

## Examples
- After the Second World War some Melanesian groups built imitation airstrips and control towers hoping cargo planes would return; Richard Feynman borrowed the image for 'cargo cult science' in 1974. *(anthropology)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cargo-cult.ritual*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cargo-cult.ritual.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*