From Etymonline.com :
Simulacrum :
1590s, “an image, that which is formed in likeness of an object,” from Latin simulacrum “likeness, image, form, representation, portrait,” a dissimilation of *simulaclom, from simulare “to make like, imitate, copy, represent,” from the stem of similis “like, resembling, of the same kind” (see similar). Browne (“Urn-Burial”) writes of “the ancient division of body soul and image or simulacrum of them both.”
It is attested by 1805 as “something having the mere appearance of another thing,” hence “a specious imitation.” The word was borrowed earlier as semulacre (late 14c.), via Old French simulacre.
“Together, Adams and the dark young Yance-man walked over to view the sim.
There it sat. Solely, at its large oak desk, with the American flag behind it. In Moscow another and identical sim sat, with a duplicate of Megavac 6-V, the flag of the USSR behind it; otherwise everything, the clothes, the grey hair, the competent, fatherly, mature but soldierly features, the strong chin – it was the same sim all over again, both having been simultaneously in Germany, wired by the finest Yance-man technicians alive. And here maintenance men perpetually skulked, watching with trained, narrow eyes for any sign of failure, even a fraction-of-a second hesitation. anything which might mitigate the quality striven for, that of free and easy authenticity; this simulacrum, out of all which they, the Yance-men were involved in, required the greatest semblance of the actuality which it mimicked.
The sim began to move. Adams shut his eyes, standing as he was, out of range of the cameras, hidden with this small, dark, very young but expert Yance-man, the author of the words about to be uttered. Maybe it’ll go out of its mind, Adams thought wildly, and began to recite pornographic ballads. Or like one of those antique disc records of the previous century : repeat a word repeat a word …
“My fellow Americans,” the sim said in its firm, familiar, near-hoarse but utterly controlled voice.”
It’s a sensory test.
The Scream
Holding Up the Sky
I found myself between two places
Neither of them home.
I could not recognize the faces
Iv’e never felt so alone.
So alone.
I found myself between two choices
To settle or to run.
All my life Iv’e heard the voices
This time mine’s the only one.
The only one.
(chorus)
I want to feel what the wind feels like
I want to go that high.
And feel no fear instead of being down here
Holding up the sky.
Life astounds us in an instant
Changing all we know.
Blink just once and then you’ve missed it.
All you can do is watch it go.
Watch it go.
(repeat chorus)
I found myself between two lifetimes
A sunset and a dawn.
I reached out and took the lifeline.
Offered up between here and gone.
Here and gone.
(repeat chorus)