# ivory tower (detachment)

*Ordinarily means:* a place where people are isolated from everyday realities

a boundary that has drifted far from the ground where events happen, so the model inside no longer touches the actual

- Computed level: L12 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: levels and abstraction  ·  Arena: social

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [boundary](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boundary.limit), [drift](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drift.aimless), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [ground](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-ground.level), [real](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-real.actual)

**Through:** none

**Novel properties:**
- none

## Examples
- MIT's Media Lab pursued futuristic AI projects while ignoring ethical ground-level impacts documented in poor communities. *(institutions)*
- The European Central Bank set interest rates based on abstract models as Greek municipal debts collapsed in 2011. *(economics)*
- The Mars Climate Orbiter burned up because engineers used pounds while NASA's model assumed newtons. *(engineering)*

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