Episode #124 ... Simulacra and Simulation - Philosophize This!  ## Metadata - Author: **Philosophize This!** - Full Title: Episode #124 ... Simulacra and Simulation - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/87b7a8f4-23e6-4c79-aac2-6eec2c36d2e7 ## Highlights - What Does a Post Modern Society Look Like? Summary: Some thinkers said that we were 50 to a hundred years before we'd ever even see the effects of post modern ideas. But there were a few, like the philosopher jean beaudriard, who claimed all the way back in the early 19 eighties,. He makes a case for this, among other things, in his book, simulacre and simulation. The ideas therein made publicly popular by the movie the matrix in 19 99. Transcript: Speaker 1 Living in a society that doesn't have these points of unity to base itself upon, this is really an experiment that's never been run. And maintaining a society is obviously far from a guarantee. The concerns of several thinkers right around this time, in the early eighties, was what does a post modern, fragmented society really look like? How does it work? How does it remain held together, despite the citizens having such different identities, having such different interpretations of the meann of things? How does society work when you can be living and what's essentially a different universe thom the person sitting next t you on the bus? There were a lot of different theories. Some thinkers said that we were 50 to a hundred years before we'd ever even see the effects of post modern ideas. Some people thought the effects, good or bad, depending on who ouere reading, were at least a couple decades away before we'd even see an impact. But there were a few, like the philosopher jean beaudriard, claimed all the way back in the early 19 eighties, that we were already living in a post modern society in many ways. He makes a case for this, among other things, in his book, simulacre and simulation. The ideas therein made publicly popular by the movie the matrix in 19 99. Now, it should be said, the movie the matrix is not a perfect and capstillation of the philosophy of john baudriard it means not even a decent one. But how could it be? That's not what they were going for anyway, making a hollywood movie. ([Time 0:05:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5f43b68e-51d6-4bfb-a70c-32665db7f32a)) - What is a Simulation? Summary: Jean beaudriard wrote a book called simulacre and simulation. In it he talks about the idea that we are living in an elaborate computer simulation. What if, in the same way, a person is jacked into the matrix living their life in a world that prevents them from ever seeing the real world as it truly exists? We'll find out how true these stories really are on this week's episode of This Is Life. Transcript: Speaker 1 Picture someone who maybe isn't entirely convinced by any of these stories. You can imagine spending your entire life immersed in this simulation, stuck in this up or come t v bed life style, wondering what the purpose of your life is. Only to get to the end of your life to be sadly disappointed. Because, in a twisted way, the entire purpose of your life the whole time was really just to persist on living for another day, to keep your heart beating so that you can continue to assist The egenda ofth race of machines that exist at another level of reality that you don't even realize is there. This metaphor will become important for our episode here to day. So how much of this is jean beaudriard, and how much of this is a hollywood syphy movie? Bt, beaudriard does not say that the purpose of your life is to serve as a power source for a race of machines. And with the title of his book, simulacre and simulation, he's not implying that you're living in some sort of elaborate computer simulation. What he'd probably want us to do in our modern time is to think about the word simulation a little more open mindedly than that. What is a simulation? Boudrard might give a definition along the lines of, a simulation is an imitation of how a real world process or system operates over time. What if, in the same way, a person is jacked into the matrix living their life in a world that prevents them from ever seeing the real world as it truly exists. ([Time 0:09:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b3e84d50-db5f-4cf8-a3a3-8cd48a6c6164)) - You Are What You Buy Summary: Post structureless thought continues to deconstruct and fragment, these grand narratives that people all throughout history have used as labels to define their identity. And what this creates in a post modern society is a crisis of identity for the individual. What beaudriard would expect to see if he was looking for a response to this identity vacuum that's created is a substantial increase in consumerism. Mass consumerism, buying stuff, becomes one of the only reliable ways people have to express who they are. You are what you buy in this advanced capitalist, post modern world. Transcript: Speaker 1 As the years go on and post structureless thought continues to deconstruct and fragment, these grand narratives that people all throughout history have used as labels to define their identity. I mean, just to stay with our examples from before, things like, i'm a christian i'm a democrat, i'm a hashtag conspiracy theorist. The more these sets of ideas are fragmented, the less they can be used as archetypes for people to attach their identity to. And what this creates in a post modern society is a crisis of identity for the individual. Because if we can no longer turn to these grand narratives to provide us with our entire identity, and this enlightenment era idea that that identity is stable and unchanging, how does the individual express who they are? What new identity markers emerge in a post modern world? Well, to baudriard, specifically in these post modern, advanced capitalist societies, during the time he's doing his work, the rational end to this crisis of identity. What beaudriard would expect to see if he was looking for a response to this identity vacuum that's created is a substantial increase in consumerism. Mass consumerism, buying stuff, becomes one of the only reliable ways people have to express who they are. You are what you buy in this advanced capitalist, post modern world. From the sports logo on the front of your clothes to that car you drive to the pineapple shaped plate that you put decorative holiday cookies on. ([Time 0:12:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/49371124-4077-4a96-b943-ad352b16ef06)) - To beaudriard Summary: To beaudriard: We understand our reality only in terms of how it compares to what's playing out on the screens in our lives. T v shows movies or vidios that present visual images of characters that people in turn model themselves and their lives after. People even form their expectations what things are going to be like in general from stuff on t v. But then you actually experience it, and it's just nothing like that. Transcript: Speaker 1 These visual images fuel that mass consumerism, because people look to what's on their screens to determine not only the next thing they're going to buy, but also, once they buy it, What that thing they bought is going to say about them to the people around them. This is accomplished through a bombardment of commercials that show you visual images of the type of person you're going to be once you buy a product. T v shows movies or vidios that present visual images of characters that people in turn model themselves and their lives after. To beaudriard, in this new world that we live in that's dominated by media, we understand our reality only in terms of how it compares to what's playing out on the screens in our lives. Consider the fact that oftentimes our entire social experience is mediated by things that we've seen on the t v. Consider the fact that we live in a time where it's not even weird to hear people talk about their lives in terms of how it compares to something on the t v. To talk about their love life in terms of, you know, i'll know that i've found the right person when i'm around them and we're acting like core and tepanga act on that t v show. To talk about major events and their life in relation to a screen. Oh, my wedding day, it's, it's going to be spectacular. It's going to feel just like the wedding scene out of this movie. People even form their expectations what things are going to be like in general from stuff on t v. You know, you you see this stuff on t v, you you come to expect it's going to be a certain way. But then you actually experience it, and it's just nothing like that. ([Time 0:17:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fbe88a84-cbef-4e3e-a7ae-7acf3871e8c8))