Philosophers of simulation

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Philosophers of simulation


The latest in the field of millennium thinking is all from France. And one of the most interesting and influential theories going around is about simulation. That’s simulation, not stimulation- as in pretend activity, not the breath-quickening kind, though it is arguable that some simulation is a lot more stimulating than the “real thing”.

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, who died on March 6th, 2007, at the age of 77, once famously said everything in a “post-modern” context is simulated. Post-modernism is a term coined by fellow Frenchman Jean Francois Lyotard in the late 1940’s. It is defined as, among other things, as a time after the era of “metanarratives” or grand theories that pushed “universal truths”. Lyotard obviously thought post-modernism was born already when he enunciated the definition.

And when Baudrillard said everything is simulated, somewhat later, in the eighties, he meant everything, even war, or maybe, particularly war, which he likened to a video game. So a soldier knows he’s at war not in any metanarrative sense but because of the amount of ammunition he expends or the tonnage of bombs he’s dropping. And Saddam Hussein knew he was at war by the number of Iraqi soldiers he was turning into cannon fodder just so that he could maintain himself in power. There is, according to this vision, no metanarrative involved. Neither is there any “real” war going on without the metanarrative, despite the suffering and bloodshed it engenders.

Baudrillard spoke of the seductiveness of something standing in for something else, the simulation itself. It works well enough, as long as we accept that we live in a post-modern era of fractured universal truth. The eclecticism we see all around us would strongly suggest that this is so, and so, by implication and empirical observation alike, everything around us is simulated. All things great and small are updated by means of simulation. Baudrillard explained that “object” has grown more important than “subject” and more attractive too.

So, by inference, the blatant steel and chrome excess of a 1950’s Cadillac Eldorado, which for all its sensual curves and protuberances, its classic sexiness, was merely “modern”. Alors Voila! Witness the post-modern simulated Cadillac: it is half the size to reduce fuel consumption, has just a hint or two of its former chromatic exuberance, retains a lot of sound-proofed pizzazz under the bonnet, and enough leather-coddling luxury on the inside so that you can, and do, recognise it. It’s Marilyn Monroe updated to Scarlett Johansson. It’s different, this simulated being, but you have to be very churlish to complain.

But what happens to the purist? There may be no go but to cater to him. But just remember he too is a simulacrum of a purist himself. But since you still have retro-people like this, and classicists, and the unbending orthodox, you might just point him towards a Porsche 911, almost unchanged, or the Oyster Perpetual from Rolex. Even they have moved the rest of their lines behind the mirror to avoid extinction. Where, pray, are Ovaltine and Binaca? But those who thrive and grow still - McDonald’s and its “healthy” Big Mac, the butch new Germanic Rolls Royce Phantom – are unabashed simulations of their former selves, Mata Hari, RTD2, Swastika- even some NASA chic.

When Baudrillard wrote of the entire post-modern landscape being simulated, it’s because a turret or belvedere perched on a suburban house and a Doric half pillar clinging to the side of a penthouse, is indeed simulation. Neither becomes Blenheim Palace or the Parthenon by virtue of such embellishment. But both are touched and benefited, however improbably, by a resonance of those places and others like them.

Followers of Baudrillard’s social theories termed his vision, or at least a part of it, Hyperreality, meaning a simulated reality that is more real than the real. Simulation itself creates this Hyperreality, constantly enriched by an ever varied menu. It is an evolving species, just like economic theory, moved on from the static visions of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Consider that in the 20th century you were a Liberal or a Conservative or even a Communist. In the 19th, you were sometimes a Feudalist and a Slaver and an Imperialist in addition to being a Whig or a Tory. But now you can be an issue-based both/all three/manifold, without betraying your beliefs for the jettisoning of the metanarrative. The simulation in all this, according to Baudrillard, is in the fact that the media today puts in most of the simulation. It is media that amplifies and repeats, distributes the labels, highlights the importance, defines the definition, turns it hyperreal.

In other words, simulation is not a fringe activity appealing to well, a fringe, but mainline evolution that is changing the way we think and perceive. The masses have good simulation antennae. It is a poor man’s aptitude, to grasp fractured nuances, to inductively leap over the metanarratives it replaces - because the poor long, much more than the others, for change and progress. The related implication is that the rich tend to be reactionary, metaphorically hanging on to their treasure chests and their status, looking at everything through the prism of vested interest. The middle classes are haplessly entrapped, choosing to emulate the rich except for their maverick outriders. But when the changes wrought by simulation become ubiquitous, even simple things wafted up from the street like wearing your shirt outside your trousers with a coat, or replying “good” to “How are you,” then, the middle classes vanguard the change, sometimes making the rich follow them into adoption. Adoption may well be the idiot cousin of simulation but we never ever call it names.

It was Jean Baudrillard and his thoughts that also inspired the makers of The Matrix. It is remarkable just how much The Matrix and its sequels appealed to the young. They were not confused by its esoterics, nor disturbed at the notion of being imprisoned by a rampant technology.

I suppose you have to like mirrors. And remixes too. But which part of the mix is the most real? But that’s like wanting to look into the core of an onion. Jean Baudrillard himself put it differently. He said: "What I am, I don't know. I am the simulacrum of myself."

( 1,050 words)

By Gautam Mukherjee
Friday, 18th May 2007

This and all other original essays on GHATOTKACHSERIES are copyright 2005-2007 by Gautam Mukherjee. All rights reserved.