Simulacrum: Are We Heading Into The Matrix?
Will you take the blue pill or the red pill?
Few people really truly experienced the passage from modernity into post-modernity (1970- 2023). Incremental changes in how we view reality obscured the journey and left many with empty-headed thoughts of “Wherever you go, there you are.”
However, there were those who carefully watched the parade go by and left behind plenty of history and analysis for us to examine, like evangelical Christian philosopher Francis Shaffer (How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, 1976), futurist Alvin Toffler (Future Shock, 1971), and French philosopher Jean Baudrillard (Simulacra and Simulation, 1981).
In my previous essay, Reality Is Escaping Out The Back Door, I introduced Baudrillard’s concept of simulation and simulacra and posed the statement, “The Total Collapse Of Reality Could Be At Hand.”
Why? Among other things, AI development is advancing at a geometric rate, potentially doubling every 12 to 18 months, threatening to displace what is left of reality with a simulacrum. Baudrillard demonstrated this progression from reality to anti-reality: