Simulacra and Simulation
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Simulacra and Simulation (Simulacres et Simulation in French), published in 1981, is a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard.
Simulacra and Simulation is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims that our society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that in fact all that we know as real is actually a simulation of reality. The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the reality that we perceive.
Baudrillard describes a world saturated by imagery, infused with media, sound, and advertising. This simulacra of the real surpasses the real world and thus becomes hyperreal, a world that is more real than real. It presupposes and precedes the real. In this world an apathy and melancholy permeate and begin to erode Nietsche's feeling of ressentiment.
A specific analogy that Baudrillard uses is a fable derived from the work of Jorge Luis Borges. In it, a great Empire created a map that was so detailed it was as large as the Empire itself. The actual map grew and decayed as the Empire itself conquered or lost territory. When the Empire crumbled, all that was left was the map. In Baudrillard's rendition, it is the map that we are living in, the simulation of reality, and it is reality that is crumbling away from disuse.
The Matrix, a popular sci-fi film, makes many connections to Simulacra and Simulation. In fact, the principal character of The Matrix, Neo, can be seen with a copy of Simulacra and Simulation near the beginning when he gets the two grand for the software and then follows the group to the club where he meets Trinity. However, the copy is inaccurate because the hollowed-out copy he has in The Matrix has the chapter "On Nihilism" in the middle, not at the end where it is actually located. Morpheus also refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the "desert of the real", a direct reference to Baudrillard's work. In the original script, Morpheus referenced Baudrillard's book specifically. In an interview, however, Baudrillard said that "The Matrix" has nothing to do with his work. [link]
See also
External links
- Jean Baudrillard, [Simulacra and Simulations]
- [Translation of the interview with Le Nouvel Observateur regarding Matrix]
- Richard Hanley, [Simulacra and Simulation: Baudrillard and the Matrix]
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