# sour grapes (want-edit)

*Ordinarily means:* disparaging something only because one cannot have it

A self model that, finding a wanted thing out of reach, edits the want so the thing reads as never wanted.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: published  ·  Domain: agency

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [self-model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-self-model.reflexive), [find](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-find.search), [want](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-want.desire), [reach](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reach.action), [edit](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-edit.process), [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [never](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-never.temporal), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation)

**Through:** The reach is read accurately as short of the goal; in place of carrying that as a loss, the self model changes the want so that want and reach agree again. The window never closed on anything wanted, so nothing is felt as lost.

**Novel properties:**
- a want edited to fit the reach
- a loss that arrives as a thing never wanted
- reach read accurately, want read falsely

## Examples
- In Aesop's fable a fox leaps again and again for grapes hanging too high, fails, and walks off saying they were sour anyway. *(literature)*

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