[Vision2020] Simulation, Hypermarkets, Hypercommodity

[Ted Moffett]

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>
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>
> 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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