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Thought-provoking. I don't fully agree with Heidegger. I think we do live in models in our "heads". But I think that we also have an experience of the world outside of those models (Taoism describes this well).

So now, inspired by your essay, I am thinking that the models in our heads may be more related to language and the desire to communicate with others. I presume that before language (if such time existed), we could still think (some will disagree). But we didn't have a separate mental concept of the world.

I'm sure some smart folks have already discussed this to death. But whether we live in our models or not, we do have models, mostly acquired by osmosis from our parents, friends, teachers, peers, society, etc., and that these models are unique creates significant difficulty first, in communicating with others, and second, in understanding that the model is not the reality and that we can change the model.

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