> This is something unique: an abstraction that hides the distributed nature of a system and actually succeeds. That's not even remotely unique. OP is grappli

> This is something unique: an abstraction that hides the distributed nature of a system and actually succeeds. That's not even remotely unique. OP is grappling with "the map is not the territory" vs. maps have many valid uses. Abstractions can be both not accurate in every context and 100% useful in many, many common contexts. Also (before you get too excited), abstractions have quality: there are good abstractions -- which are useful in many common contexts -- and bad abstractions -- which overpromise and turn out to be misleading in some or many common contexts. I'll put it this way: the idea that The Truth exists is a rough (and not particularly useful) abstraction. If you have a problem with that, it just means you have something to learn to engage reality more fruitfully.