Are we living in a Simulation? - Introduction to Baudrillard

An introduction to Baudrillard's ideas of 'simulacra' and 'simulation'. Seeing what we can learn from them, and how they help lay the ground for us to explore his other ideas in the near future.

[woo__ooow]

Thanks a lot! :)
I came across your video as I was googling the book "Simulacra and Simulation" -- and it didn't disappoint! You did a great job explaining complex topics in an accessible language. Keep up the great work!

[realnoriega]

Great Explanation of Simulacra and Simulation 👍

[QuinnKallisti]

basically just an extensive study on semiotics, and how far abstracted we have made the minutiae of life through repeatedly de-rezzing the semiotics of life through cliched reproduction. Thus, making life a "Simulation" as the minutiae is so heavily divorced from reality, and added together, the minutiae functions effectively to make up all aspects of life. Thus creating the: "Desert of the Real"

[stangoodvibes]

Did you know the Wachowski's made every cast member of The Matrix read this book?

The Matrix is so non-duality! -

Child: "Do not try to bend the spoon, that would be impossible. Simply try to realise the truth"
Neo: "What truth?"
Child: "There is no spoon"

[will_copprue]

This so-called reality has always been a simulation and/or 0s & 1s …The issue is people are just recognizing it.. Keep going and growing lil bro!!!

[hexlemorte]

Interesante 👍this book is as referenced by the matrix right? Would you say money is a simulation?

[AezlyndWanderin]

Your mention of status being considered more important than actual skill reminds me of the art world. Or more specifically of the modern ‘anti-art’ art world where cans of literal ‘artists shit’ (no that is not a euphemism) are valued by the elites because of the extremely high socioeconomic status the person who, um, filled them had when he first started calling himself an ‘artist’ or where an ‘artists’ recreates her messy bedroom in a museum and the elites allow her to call it a sculpture, again, because she also held an extremely high socioeconomic status when she first started calling herself an ‘artist’. Seeing how successful such people have been many people have tried to emulate them and to create their own ‘anti-art’ but the success eludes them because, unlike with real art which rewards hard-work and merit, in order to succeeding the ‘anti-art’ world one must have already risen to the highest heights of wealth and society society before one even becomes an art novice.

[mirellavasileva]

I think simulation (and simulacra, if I understand it correctly) is not a negative phenomenon, because it includes every abstract process of thought, which is needed for evolution and growth. How would we know anything if we haven't created written words - a phase four of a simulation, same with numbers, art, culture and science. Having a model is needed if you want to level up in anything. Also I want to refer to book - "The case against reality", which doubts our understanding of almost any reality at all.

[JD-bfws]

I watched in full twice, and there are many issues with this video.

Regarding the idea sign, it would have been appropriate to discuss Saussure's semiotics, as that's the origin of this conception of the sign which Baudrillard extends. More than that, I think it would be useful in clarifying exactly what a sign is. 

You describe hyperreality (I think more than once) as if it's something that has not yet taken over, so-to-speak. This is not what Baudrillard says. You say that we are "heading towards" the 4th stage, and this is just much too far from the text.


I understand this video is meant to be very condensed and introductory, and basically just focuses on the first chapter of the book. That said, you're placing far too much emphasis on the precession and treating it as if it were a unifying theory, which it emphatically isn't. Reading Simulacra and Simulation and trying to fit everything into the procession is going to get you lost very quickly. There are two really significant reasons why the precession of simulacra is a poor focus when introducing Baudrillard. 1) It's of extremely little importance in his oeuvre, and 2) Baudrillard totally disowns the precession and decides it doesn't hold water -- See Forgetting Baudrillard with Sylvere Lotringer.

To that point I just made, it would have been very good to talk about the Tasaday. This is a topic well suited to an introduction to Baudrillard as a whole because it has to do with alterity, which is very central to his late thought. You see this in Pursuit In Venice, Radical Exoticism, Viral Hospitality, The Animals, and Spirit of Terrorism, to a lesser extent. That's just to name a few. Hell, I haven't read it, but Baudrillard even has a book *called* Radical Alterity.

You are extrapolating far too much and misrepresenting Baudrillard when you talk about reality. He says, explicitly, "I hold no position on reality." I've noticed that many people don't understand that Baudrillard is extremely nuanced. I think this is why he's so frequently misrepresented. I do appreciate that you haven't taken Simulacra and Simulation as being about Bostrom's kind of simulation theory. Beyond that, I feel that Baudrillard is not *terribly* difficult to read, but often requires at least some background for most people to really parse. It's not quite that Baudrillard is unclear, rather that he's not as explicit as someone like, say, Hume. For all of these reasons, a concise and entry level overview of Simulacra and Simulation is very difficult to do with much accuracy. A concise entry-level introduction to Simulacra and Simulation that has mass YouTube appeal is a fool's errand if you want to stay accurate.

You need to talk about differentiation, implosion, and the orbital. Your exegesis of what Baudrillard says about Disneyland is completely off-target. There's more, but whatever.

I want to say how much I respect you for not trying to tie this into The Matrix like so many other YouTubers have -- to the point that they try to argue that he's simply wrong about The Matrix and evacuate him from his philosophy. I saw one of your comments and I'm very glad you know he never liked the film. I won't say how I feel about the video's title.

This has been a really long screed. Obviously, I care a lot about Baudrillard's philosophy. I study him and I'm consistently disappointed with how he's constantly and completely misrepresented and by how people appropriate his thought to push forward their narratives. I'm not saying that you're doing the latter. I hope that you'll think about what I'm saying. That's all.