Simulation and Postmodern Society

by Ken Sanes

Postmodern society immerses us in virtual realities

Contemporary, or postmodern, society is characterized by a newfound ability to control the world of nature and worlds of illusion. It immerses people in a virtual environment of images and simulations, and encourages the acting out of desires, including desires that once seemed off-limits to action and experience. Ultimately, it seeks to turn reality into a simulation and make simulations seem real, so humanity will have the ability to control and create its surroundings at will..

How does postmodern society use this newfound power? It certainly has used it to enormous good. But it has also used it to create an emerging worldwide culture in which images, simulations, story lines, performances and rhetoric are employed to manipulate the public and sell it products, phony candidates and false ideas. Thus postmodern society turns out to be a realm of illusion in more than one sense. How does postmodern society use this newfound power? It certainly has used it to enormous good. But it has also used it to create an emerging worldwide culture in which images, simulations, story lines, performances and rhetoric are employed to manipulate the public and sell it products, phony candidates and false ideas. Thus postmodern society turns out to be a realm of illusion in more than one sense.

This section takes substantial excerpts from around the site on these overlapping subjects of postmodern society, simulation, and technology, and collects them into "chapters" to reveal some of the essential characteristics of the age.

Preface: the History of These Ideas
Postmodern Society as a Simulation Machine
Symbolic Arenas
Simulation Confusion & the Construction of Reality
Fake Utopias
Artificial Landscapes
Cyber-Hedonism and Recreational Evil
Faustian Society
Progress and Regress; Engulfment and Escape
Simulation and the Self
The Journey This Site Would Take You On

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