In one of the early scenes from the movie "The Matrix," we see where Neo hides his hacker-discs; inside a copy of the book "Simulacra and Simulation" by modern day philosopher Jean Boudrillard.
Image by capondesign - source: Pixabay
I've only recently bookmarked the audio-book Simulacra and Simulation, so I haven't actually read it yet, but know that it is in part about Hyperreality:
Hyperreality, in semiotics and postmodernism, is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.
source: Wikipedia
A simulacrum (plural: simulacra from Latin: simulacrum, which means "likeness, similarity") is a representation or imitation of a person or thing.
source: Wikipedia
In Boudrillard's 1981 book, he seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols and society. In Simulacra and Simulation, he uses simulacra as a term describing "copies that depict things that either had no original, or that no longer have an original." The book opens with a quote from Ecclesiastes: "The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true." If you'd like to read the book, here's a pdf file.
I haven't got the time today, or the mental energy even, to be honest, to provide you with a deep philosophical critique of the book or the film that made me aware of it's existence. I'd just like to point your attention to the irrefutable fact that our modern consumerism driven society is our own Matrix. That the reality we live in is carefully constructed, our opinions manufactured, and that we strongly believe things that have never been true; memes, ideas that never had a footing in reality but were communicated through stories, imagery and symbolism. We've come so far now, that it won't be long before we'll be able to create a virtual reality that feels so real, and so good, that we won't want to leave...
This process of of fooling our brains into accepting the depiction of reality as reality itself, is now reaching scary levels, as shown in the video below. Don't worry, the video also isn't a long and dry philosophical treatise about this phenomenon; it's just a warning about the times we're about to enter, with simulations so real that we literally can not believe our eyes anymore when watching the news or anything else that's not the real life thing. Did you know that there are already AI's that can write completely believable news-articles, by just feeding them a few words? Or what about the possibility of producing absolutely life-like pictures of real people, talking and doing things, when these people never even existed at all? It scares me, but please watch it for yourself. And when you do, ask yourself seriously how you've come to know the things you know to be true...
Technology Is Becoming Indistinguishable From Reality
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