Simulacra and Social Crisis- Volodymyr Shevchenko

We begin 2024 with almost all key areas of society, such as the family, economy, politics, and education in a state of crisis, or on the way to it. The question arises: what exactly is causing such disturbing consequences across these realms of life, and how can we improve the situation for the better, if at all? This article examines the evolution of ideas in society and their impact on reality in the context of these questions.

Let's look at the evolution of ideas in society. First, there is reality, we exist in it and try to understand it. The discovery of a certain object of reality leads to its designation as a symbol - this is how an idea, a model of reality, is born. This idea exists for a certain period of time and reflects a certain aspect of the past reality. However, over time, reality changes, and if the designated object loses its correspondence to the sign or disappears, a new type of idea is born - a simulacrum.

Simulacra are substitutes and heirs of nonexistent objects of reality, which continue to play the role of reality by simulating it. The trick is that this simulacrum, as an idea, continues to exist only until there is an ultimatum request for the manifestation of the previous initial object of reality that performed the original functions. If the functional inconsistency of the simulacrum with reality is exposed, its crisis as an idea occurs.

We live in the age of information, and the speed of its transmission shapes reality. Every second, terabytes of information appear, disappear or are corrupted during its distribution. As the end user, generator and moderator of this information, we do not have time to process it in accordance with the standards of past centuries when the rhythm of life was much slower. We therefore begin to use new methods of processing it, focusing either on very narrow and highly detailed aspects of reality or on a very broad and extremely abstract model of reality. As a result, the connection between reality and the symbols that represent it is diminishing, which, in turn, leads to faster cycles of information evolution and an increase in the number of local social crises associated with it.

Social relationships are a good example of a simulacrum in crisis. Family, friendship, professional, and general social relations have all been systematically moving towards crisis since the very beginning of the Internet. The instantaneous and global nature of communication has led to a rethinking of previous communication formats, and at the same time, it has transformed them into a different state where the virtual dominates the real - simulacrum. The longer social interaction is simulated, the less real it is, and the less memory of it remains. Taken together, this situation makes processes that, by definition, can only exist in the physical world become increasingly difficult to perform. In developed countries, the number of single people is increasing, whilst birth rates, life expectancy and family sizes are falling, the quality of school and university education is deteriorating, and the culture is stuck in postmodernism. And as for politics –the less said about that, the better.

After the simulacrum of global security was exposed first in 2020 by the global Covid-19 pandemic and then by the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, a crisis has emerged in the notion of security that was formed as a guarantor of peace after World War II and the collapse of the USSR. The crisis in social relations has directly affected the way global organisations make decisions. Event forecasting algorithms based on statistics available in datasets and designed to automate decision-making are technically incapable of predicting unpredictable trends and randomness in the world. Unexpectedness is precisely the ultimatum demand for conformity with reality, which is why the existing simulacrum of the political (a product of simulation of reality) is creating perhaps the most ambitious crisis of this century.

So is there a solution?

If we can agree on the assumption that simulacra that distort the reality of our society are evil and a state in which ideas reflect reality more accurately is our vision of a brighter future, there are several possible ways out of this crisis. It is important to focus on developing critical thinking and methods of analysing and exposing the simulacrum. It is necessary to completely rethink social relations in society and develop new approaches to information management. Society should consider returning to more effective use of traditional means of communication and interaction. Virtual connections should not replace real ones but rather serve as a complement to them. A commonly accepted paradigm and effective ethical standards for software development should be formed. And finally, the key is to realise that it is society, its values and decisions that determine the direction in which the evolution of ideas moves. Conscious and responsible existence should be the key to overcoming the crisis and restoring the connection between reality and its ideas.

References

Baudrillard, J (1994). Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press.