# wishful thinking (substitution)

*Ordinarily means:* believing something is true because you want it to be

a reading replaced by the wanted value, undetectable downstream because the model's report carries no mark of where it came from.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: model and reality

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [read](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-read.information), [want](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-want.desire), [value](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-value.worth), [report](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-report.information), [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [wish](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wish.emotional), [cheap](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cheap.economic)

**Through:** The wanted value is written where a reading should be, at no cost of measurement; every process downstream consumes reports without provenance, so the substitution propagates exactly as if it had been read.

**Novel properties:**
- want written as reading
- provenance-free reports
- substitution invisible downstream

## Examples
- The schedule says June because June was needed, and procurement, sincerely, plans from the schedule. *(projects)*
- The invasion plan consumes intelligence that was written from the plan. *(military)*
- The patient hears that the odds are good because good was the word brought to the appointment. *(medicine)*

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