[Vision2020] Simulation, Hypermarkets, Hypercommodity

[Joe Campbell]

Sorry, Nick! Poor choice of words! I didn't mean anything negative about postmodernism by my comment. 

I also appreciate the distinction between constructive postmodernism and the more negative versions, which you have pointed out to me on many occassions! I especially like process philosophers like Griffin. Last year in my metaphysics seminar we read some Whitehead and some Hartshorne, among others. But even some of the analytically inspired postmoderns are difficult for me to understand -- Whitehead, for instance, though not Hartshorne. This might say more about me than them, though.

Best, Joe

---- Nick Gier <ngier at uidaho.edu> wrote: 

=============
Greetings from Crescent Lake in the Olympics,

I'm on vacation and I've not read my e-mail for 
five days (that's really hard!), but I just had 
to remind my good friend Joe that there are many 
kinds of postmodernism and constructive 
postmodernism is not anti-analytic. It's leading 
philosopher, David Griffin, is a expert logician as well as metaphysician.

The only form of postmodernism (the French form) 
that people talk about is the worst version of it.

Nick Gier

At 09:33 AM 7/22/2007, you wrote:
>Ted, To my knowledge, Baudrillard's philosophy 
>has not been mentioned by my students, though it 
>wouldn't surprise me if I missed a reference. As 
>I mentioned, I tend not to focus on ethics or 
>political theory in my classes since my own 
>specializations are in the areas metaphysics and 
>epistemology. And post-modernism is 
>anti-analytic, so it is hard for me to get my 
>head wrapped around it. I do plan to explore the 
>connection between Baudrillard and the Matrix 
>given what you've said. Your comment about the 
>Matrix not being totally ‘fake’ is an 
>interesting one. There is a difficult article on 
>this topic -- The Matrix as Metaphysics, David 
>Chalmers -- available on the Matrix website: 
>http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/phi.html 
>The site contains several nice essays written by 
>contemporary philosophers. Among my favorites 
>are: Dream Skepticism; Brain-In-A-Vat 
>Skepticism; The Experience Machine, Christopher 
>Grau What’s So Bad About Living in the Matrix, 
>James Pryor Plato’s Cave and the Matrix, John 
>Partridge Neo’s Freedom… Whoa!, Michael 
>McKenna Wakke up! - Gnosticism & Buddhism and 
>the Matrix, Francis Flannery-Dailey & Rachel 
>Wagner The first reference -- a set of three 
>essays -- is my favorite and is the most 
>accessible. These and other essays are collected 
>together in the first book noted below; I’ve 
>used the second book for a class before and it 
>is very good, too. The Matrix and Philosophy: 
>Welcome to the Desert of the Real, edited by 
>William Irwin (Open Court, 2002) Philosophers 
>Explore The Matrix, edited by Christoper Grau 
>(Oxford University Press, 2005) Lastly, I 
>recently came across a set of essays on 
>Baudrillard and the Matrix, which I hope to 
>explore in the coming weeks, on this website: 
>http://altreligion.about.com/library/bl_matrix.htm 
>Thanks! Best, Joe ---- Ted Moffett 
><starbliss at gmail.com> wrote: ============= Joe 
>et. al. What a surprise.  The best film for a 
>Philosophy class? Though the Matrix films have 
>some rather silly flaws as science fiction, and 
>a few over wrought scenes more befitting of a 
>Bruce Willis "Die Hard" action flick, than a 
>film with the depth of thought that, for 
>example, Bergman achieves, your list of 
>questions explored in the film shows that the 
>Wachowski Brothers did a good job making a 
>mainstream commercial movie, with all the flaws 
>this usually implies, and still sneaking in 
>enough substance to provoke thought beyond the 
>nail biting suspense of "will Neo save Zion from 
>the machines!" Of course Reeves is a slouch 
>compared to McQueen, but we are in the age of 
>the Third Order of Simulacra, the death of the 
>real, thus McQueen is a quaint abstraction, 
>while Reeves is a hyperreal media 
>simulation.  The kids go nuts! Given the 
>explicit reference to Baudrillard in the Matrix, 
>I can't but wonder if you mention Baudrillard's 
>philosophical relevance to the themes in this 
>film to your students?  And it seems that if you 
>do not mention Baudrillard, the more careful 
>student observers of the film might bring 
>Baudrillard up for discussion.  The hollowed out 
>copy of "Simulacra and Simulation" in the Matrix 
>is deliberately and plainly featured in the 
>film, and what first prompted my reading of 
>Baudrillard's work.  I have not been much of a 
>follower of European post modernist thinkers. 
>Regarding the dilemma of the fake life with a 
>lot pleasure in the Matrix or an authentic life 
>with less pleasure in the real world, it is 
>interesting that the liberation of Neo from the 
>Matrix was not presented to him as this sort of 
>ethical quandary, or even offering more pleasure 
>in the real world compared to less in the 
>Matrix!  He was not explicitly told he was 
>living in a computer generated simulation from 
>which Morpheus and his crew could free him.  He 
>was offered a choice of being shown the truth, 
>almost tricked, it would seem, because if Neo 
>had really known what he was in for he might 
>have taken the blue pill! Actually, the Matrix 
>is not a totally "fake" life.  Consider that the 
>brain stimulation that the Matrix induces to 
>simulate a "real" life is real; on a 
>neurological/chemical basis it is as real as 
>what a brain receiving sensations in a real life 
>would be undergoing, in theory, a perfect 
>simulation not distinguishable from "reality" 
>unless the plug is pulled. Note also that humans 
>interact with other humans in the Matrix...This 
>means there is a "real" aspect to the Matrix 
>that is not totally a simulation. Peoples' 
>brains are relating to each other via the 
>intermediary of the computer intelligence 
>providing the background, aspects of the script 
>(the computer generated agents appear), offering 
>the simulation of their bodies interacting and 
>moving, etc; and the humans are making "choices" 
>about how they interact as they make love, talk, 
>work together, etc.  Recall that "choice" was 
>the flaw in the Matrix program that gave rise to 
>the more "intuitive" Oracle program designed to 
>cope with the subsequent "systemic failure," 
>according to the Architect, the artificial 
>intelligence master Matrix programmer. I suspect 
>if a Matrix virtual world hookup were possible 
>now, people would pay big bucks for this 
>ultimate interactive virtual game!  And some 
>would not want to pull the plug.  Scary, 
>yes?  This is the future we are heading for, it 
>seems. Baudrillard is/was (I guess he died this 
>year?) onto something... Here are a few short 
>paragraphs attempting to explain Baurdrillard's 
>concepts of simulation, simulacra and the 
>hyperreal, along with a chart explicating 
>Baudrillard's orders of simulacra that can help 
>immensely to get a handle on his thinking.  Note 
>the bottom paragraph where the quote in the 
>Matrix film spoken by Morpheus referencing 
>Baudrillard ("The desert of the real") is 
>explained: 
>http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/baudrillard1.htm 
>Going back to the beginning of his "postmodern" 
>phase, Baudrillard starts his important essay 
>"The Precession of the Simulacra" by recounting 
>the feat of imperial map-makers in an story by 
>Jorge Luis Borges who make a map so large and 
>detailed that it covers the whole empire, 
>existing in a one-to-one relationship with the 
>territory underlying it. It is a perfect replica 
>of the empire. After a while the map begins to 
>fray and tatter, the citizens of the empire 
>mourning its loss (having long taken the map - 
>the simulacrum of the empire - for the real 
>empire). Under the map the real territory has 
>turned into a desert, a "desert of the real." In 
>its place, a *simulacrum*of reality - the frayed 
>mega-map - is all that's left. The term 
>"simulacrum" goes all the way back to Plato, who 
>used it to describe a false copy of something. 
>Baudrillard has built his whole post-1970s 
>theory of media effects and culture around his 
>own notion of the simulacrum. He argues that in 
>a postmodern culture dominated by TV, films, 
>news media, and the Internet, the whole idea of 
>a true or a false copy of something has been 
>destroyed: all we have now are *simulations *of 
>reality, which aren't any more or less "real" 
>than the reality they simulate. In our culture, 
>claims Baudrillard, we take "maps" of reality 
>like television, film, etc. as more real than 
>our actual lives - these "simulacra" (hyperreal 
>copies) precede our lives. Our television 
>"friends" ( e.g. sit-com characters) might seem 
>more alive to us than their flesh-and-blood 
>equivalents ("did you see what 
>Jerry/Rachel/Frasier did last night?"). We 
>communicate by e-mail, and relate to video game 
>characters like Lara Croft better than our own 
>friends and family. We drive on freeways to 
>shopping malls full of identical chain stores 
>and products, watch television shows about film 
>directors and actors, go to films about 
>television production, vote for ex-Hollywood 
>actors for president (is he really an actor? Or 
>a politician? It doesn't matter). In fact, we 
>get nervous and edgy if we're away too long from 
>our computers, our e-mail accounts, our cell 
>phones. Now the *real* empire lays in tatters, 
>the hyerreal map still quite intact. We have 
>entered an era where third-order simulacra 
>dominate our lives, where the image has lost any 
>connection to real things.   *Orders of 
>Simulacra* *Phases of the Image* *Utopias & 
>Science-Fiction* 1. * Symbolic Order:* Society 
>is organized as a fixed system of signs 
>distributed according to rank and obligation 
>(e.g. in the feudal era a peasant couldn't 
>become the King). The question of reality 
>doesn't arise: the meaning of signs is already 
>established in advance (by God or power 
>structures). 1. Art reflects a basic reality 
>(see "Precession of the Simulacra" for an 
>extended discussion). Example: Gothic paintings 
>depict the birth of Jesus as the true son of 
>God, replete with signs of his divinity (the 
>Three Wise Men, a halo over the Madonna's head, 
>etc.). 1. No need for utopian or science-fiction 
>writing: the utopian order already exists in the 
>here and now. 2. *First Order of Simulacra: *The 
>Early Modern period, from the Renaissance to the 
>Industrial Revolution. A competition for the 
>meaning of signs starts. Simulacra aim to 
>restore an ideal image of nature. Fakes and 
>counterfeits enter the scene: baroque angels, 
>concrete chairs, theatre, fashion. But true 
>originals underlie the fakes. 2. Art masks and 
>perverts a basic reality. Example: baroque 
>paintings of an impossibly beautiful Jesus 
>ascending to the heavens like Superman, with the 
>Madonna watching with a blissful look on her 
>face. 2. Utopias: Transcendental or romantic 
>dreams, counterfeit copies of the real world. 
>"If only we got everything right, life would be 
>beautiful!" Thomas More's *Utopia. *Francis 
>Bacon's *New Atlantis.* 3. *Second Order of 
>Simulacra: *From the Industrial Revolution up 
>til the middle of the 20th century. Mass 
>production of copies or replicas of a single 
>prototype: cars, planes, fridges, clothes, 
>books. Liberation of energy through the machine 
>(Marx's world). Copies more or less 
>indistinguishable. Reproduced things aren't 
>counterfeits: they're just as "real" as their 
>prototype (though we can still recognize the 
>prototype). 3. Art masks the absence of a basic 
>reality. Example: photography and the mechanical 
>reproduction of paintings (see Walter Benjamin's 
>important essay "The Work of Art in the Age of 
>Mechanical Reproduction"). A framed reproduction 
>of a Renaissance painting of the Madonna hung 
>over one's bed, right beside a velvet image of 
>Elvis. 3. The Classic Science-Fiction of the Age 
>of Mass Production: robots, rocket-ships to 
>Mars, space exploration, alien invasion, 
>intergalactic wars. Present technology projected 
>into the future and outer space. Robert 
>Heinlein's *Starship Troopers.* Isaac Asimov's 
>*I, Robot. *Fifties Hollywood sci-fi films (e.g. 
>*Them, It Came from Outer Space)*. The original 
>*Star Trek *television series. Borges' imperial 
>map. 4. *Third Order of Simulacra:* The present 
>age - dominated by simulations, things that have 
>no original or prototype (though they may 
>parallel something). Era of the model or code: 
>computers, virtual reality, opinion polls, DNA, 
>genetic engineering, cloning, the news media 
>make the news, Nike sneakers as status symbols, 
>Disneyland. The death of the real: no more 
>counterfeits or prototypes, just simulations of 
>reality - hyperreality. Information replaces the 
>machine as the basic mode of production. 4. Art 
>bears no relation to reality at all. Example: a 
>virtual reality female talking head reads news 
>headlines to us over the Internet. Is she real? 
>A fake? The question has lost its meaning - 
>there is no original to compare her to. Or 
>Madonna (the singer) made up like Marilyn Monroe 
>vamping it up with a troupe of lithe male 
>dancers in a music video on MTV. 4. The End of 
>Science Fiction: the real absorbed into a 
>hyperreal, cybernetic world. Not about an 
>alternative universe, but about a simulation of 
>the present one. Philip K. Dick's *Simulacra.* 
>J. G. Ballard's *Crash.* William Gibson's 
>*Neuromancer. *Ridley Scott's film *Blade 
>Runner. *Paul Verhoeven's film *Total Recall. 
>*David Cronenberg's films *Crash *and 
>*eXistenZ.* The Wachowski brothers' *The Matrix. 
>*The Borg, the holodeck, and VR characters 
>(Voyager's doctor) in the later *Star Trek 
>*television series. Baudrillard's writing is 
>difficult, and for starting philosophers and 
>social and cultural theorists is best taken in 
>small doses. If you read his work, remember that 
>his central claim about postmodern culture 
>(thought he claims that he himself is *not* a 
>postmodernist) is quite simple - that we live in 
>a "desert of the real," a cultural space where 
>television, film, and computer images are more 
>"real" to us than the non-media physical reality 
>that surrounds us. This loss of reality isn't so 
>hard to understand, even if it's difficult for 
>some of us to swallow. 
>------------------------------------------ 
>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett On 7/19/07, Joe 
>Campbell <joekc at adelphia.net> wrote: > Great 
>post, Ted! > > Baudrillard baffles me, in part 
>because I adopt a completely different > 
>philosophical methodology: I'm an analytic 
>philosopher; he's a continental > philosopher. 
>What I love about continental philosophers like 
>Baudrillard, > though, is the emphasis on 
>politics and philosophy as a way of life, 
>which > is absent in most analytic works that 
>are not dealing explicitly with > ethics, 
>politics, or value theory (e.g., it is absent in 
>my own work). > Baudrillard's adeptness in 
>dealing with both metaphysics and politics is > 
>impressive. > > Right now I'm teaching 
>Philosophy Through Film as part of the Summer > 
>Cougar Quest at WSU. I have a class with 18 kids 
>from junior high school and > next week I get to 
>do it all over again with another group. Of 
>course, > anyone who is thinking of college 
>while in junior high is way ahead of the > 
>curve, so the kids are wonderful. It is much 
>different -- and much harder -- > than teaching 
>college age students but I'm learning a lot. > > 
>Each day I show and discuss various clips from 
>popular films and the best > film for a 
>philosophy class is the Matrix. In addition to 
>the political > aspects of the film, which you 
>note, there is epistemology (How do you know > 
>that you're not in the Matrix world?), 
>metaphysics (What is the nature of > reality? If 
>Neo is known to be the One by the Oricle, are 
>his actions still > free?), and ethics (Is it 
>better to live a fake life with a lot of 
>pleasure > in the Matrix world, as Cypher 
>chooses to do, or an authentic life with less > 
>pleasure in the real world?). > > At WSU I 
>created and taught a course called 'Philosophy 
>in Film' and the > first (or second) time that I 
>taught the course I showed a bunch of movies, > 
>one of which was Bullit with Steve McQueen. The 
>class hated it. I was > heartbroken and I asked 
>them to suggest a move that we could see 
>together. > That summer the Matrix came out and 
>we went to see it at Eastside Cinemas in > 
>Moscow. Afterwards we went to Pizza Hut and 
>talked about the film over pizza > and pop. 
>Initially, I hated it ­ likely a reaction to 
>their  response to > Bullit. (Come on, do you 
>really want to compare Keanu Reeves with Steve > 
>McQueen?) But since then, I've realized the 
>errors of my ways. > > So much I learn from my 
>students through teaching! And an appreciation 
>of > the Matrix is near the top of that 
>list. > > Best, Joe > > 
>------------------------------ > > From: "Ted 
>Moffett" <starbliss at gmail.com> > Subject: 
>[Vision2020] Simulation, Hypermarkets, 
>Hypercommodity > To: "Vision 2020" 
><vision2020 at moscow.com> > 
>Message-ID: > 
><d03f69e0707190148v64b7ea76x7f1ddf112a754268 at mail.gmail.com>  
> > Content-Type: text/plain; 
>charset="iso-8859-1" > > All- > > The first 
>Matric film features Neo before his awakening 
>from the Matrix > being greeted at his front 
>door by a band of revelers (follow the White > 
>Rabbit), one of whom is buying illegal 
>software.  Neo opens a hollowed out > book to 
>facilitate the transaction: a copy of Jean 
>Baudrillard's > "Simulacra > and 
>Simulation." > > Later in the same film Morpheus 
>announces to Neo when revealing the "real" > 
>appearance of Earth, "Welcome to the desert of 
>the real." a reference to a > statement in 
>"Simulacra and Simulation:" > > 
>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/trivia > > 
>Passage from link above: > > When Morpheus is 
>explaining "What the Matrix is" to Neo, he uses 
>the > phrase, > "Welcome, to the desert of the 
>real." This is a paraphrase from Jean > 
>Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation", the 
>hollowed-out book where Neo > keeps his illegal 
>software. The quote can be found in Chapter One 
>- The > Precession of Simulacra, Page one, 
>Paragraph 2, "It is the real, and not > the > 
>map, whose vestiges persist here and there in 
>the deserts that are no > longer > those of the 
>Empire, but ours. The desert of the real 
>itself." > 
>--------------------------------------------------  
> > Given the recent discussion of the worth of 
>studying Philosophy, I thought > my recent 
>explorations of Jean Baudrillard's work 
>relevant.  I find him at > once baffling, 
>obscure and absurd, then suddenly full of genius 
>when he > describes and illuminates modern forms 
>of economic/cultural process in > media > and 
>virtual worlds, in advertising and marketing of 
>products, development > of > shopping centers as 
>cultural centers, the Internet, video games, 
>the > emerging global culture sold world wide, 
>etc. > > I do not have a firm grasp on 
>Baudrillard's thinking.  He writes almost in > 
>a > foreign language (and I do not mean because 
>I read translations from the > original French), 
>designed to reveal developments in culture that 
>require > unusual uses of words and concepts, 
>sometimes appearing closer to poetry > than 
>Philosophy. > > Many in Moscow want aggressive 
>economic growth and development.  Do we > 
>understand what this means for the future as we 
>walk backwards into a > world > becoming more 
>and more global by the moment, where marketing 
>and > commodity are becoming a kind of 
>globalized simulated cultural invasion, > where 
>the copy is the real, the "hyperreal?"  This 
>places the immigration > issue into a whole new 
>realm! > > This will be old news to those well 
>versed in post modernist thinking, but > I > 
>still find these concepts endlessly thought 
>provoking: > > 
>http://webpages.ursinus.edu/rrichter/baudrillardone.html  
> > > 
>http://web3.woodbury.edu/faculty/dcremer/courses/pomo/BaudrillardSS2.htm  
> > > > 
>http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberspace_internet_virtuality_postmodernity.html  
> > > ----------------- > Ted Moffett > > 
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