If I’m being totally
honest before this unit I had never heard the word Simulacra. It was a hard
word to get my tongue around and all of the learning’s and quotes seemed very
one sided from theorist Jean Baudrillard.
Jean Baudrillard is French
sociologist, theorist and author of the book Simulacra and Simulation. He
explains Simulacra as being a copy that depicts things that either had no
reality to begin with (similar to the world in the Matrix movie) or something
that no longer has an original (Disneyland). He has been quoted as saying
“In todays world, reality has been replaced by sign systems that
recodify and supplant the real. Simulation precedes and determines the real”
To help understand the
evolution of Simulation further Baudrillard explains the Hierachy of Simulation
as these four stages;
A simulacrum is
strongly represented in this current day and age via online games or second
life. I myself have never played a second life game or have an avatar but I
suppose its because I am too busy with my first life. In the gaming world second
life and avatars are used as an extension of reality, a world in which you can
do things that can’t be done in this world.
Howard Rheingold is also very interested in the theories around virtual communities. In his book ‘The Virtual Community’ he describes entire communities of people online where they are performing all of their daily duties in cyberspace. People can not only socialise with friends but also go to work or study online whilst living another parallel life in this real world.
Baudrillard believed that our lives were becoming so saturated with simulacra that all meaning was becoming meaningless, which he call “precession of simulacra”. I am not sure I believe entirely in his theory. Simulacra and second life for some people is just an escape - a break from the everyday, which isn’t such as bad thing, there are worse things they could be doing.
I think second life can be used to advance our world and we are just in the infancy. Recently I saw an article about a disabled man who was running a factory on the other side of the world aided by his avatar. So we must remember both the disadvantages of the social exclusions of second life and avatars but also the advantages and future prospects of the potential of simulacra. I will never look at the world with the same eyes after discovering the word Simulacra.
REFERENCES:
Rheingold H, N/A. The Virtual Community.
Viewed 8 January 2014 <http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/2.html>
The Research Geek, Oct 2010. The Social Media and Simulacrum of the self. Viewed 8 January 2014. <http://researchgeek.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/simulacrum-of-the-self/>
Waugh, R, April 2012. Avatar becomes reality, Viewed 8 January 2014 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2135067/Mind-controlled-robot-paraplegics-unveiled-Avatar-reality.html>
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