Romance copy in the back of the Costco olive oil: “…produced according to the highest standards for authenticity…”, which quite literally means the *lowest* standards — I.e. that it is really oil pressed from olives. #costco #simulacra #cpg

Indiescovery Episode 14 - A Very Early Halloween Special - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/indiescovery-episode-14-a-very-early-halloween-special #TheMissing:J.J.MacfieldandtheIslandofMemories #IndiescoveryPodcast #Birdview/Isometric #ActionAdventure #RedCandleGames #NintendoSwitch #MWMInteractive #ArcSystemWorks #DarkDeception #PointandClick #SinglePlayer #Indiescovery #LayersofFear #rose-engine #Firstperson #BlooberTeam #HumbleGames #Platformer #AspyrMedia #Simulacra #Detention #Signalis #RPG

Why is real life so #virtualistic ?

While working for a while in my #garden, this tool broke just like in a video game.

I am really annoyed of using in-real-life-currency to get a new tool.

Or should I just go and kill some enemies hoping they drop useful tools? 😆

#videogames #realistic #reallife #losingtouchwithreality #matrix #simulacra #simulation

Alt text for gideo: Instagram ad for a game called Trainstation 2 in which the player does things like loads cargo onto trains and routes trucks across busy shipping yards.
“If you’re finding it hard to properly relax, then I really recommend this mobile game… everything about this one makes me feel super calm,” the narrator says.

#simulacra

@roberre @csgordon @go_shrumm @fzzlkfly @philosophy

Well, a properly designed simulation would presumably take measures to toy with our perceptions, so I would not look to perception as the way to judge this.

There are some good Star Trek episodes that explore and exploit this concept of perceiving simulation. Ship in a Bottle, for example, but there are several more.

You'd want to do some investigative work to find things other than mere perception to judge whether you were inside a simulation. Determining if there were boundaries or limits of granularity. In one Star Trek episode, the computer starts to slow down when asked unexpected questions that cause it to have to conjure simulation faster than it can keep up with.

Studies of the quantum realm or distant astrophysics can provide worthy avenues of study. Trying to figure out whether quantum randomness is truly random or not (I think it's believed to be).

The strongest evidence against "free will" that appeals to me is that there is no known situation in which free will has ever been documented to violate what physics would have done absent free will. That a willful universe would stay consistent with an unwillful one is very odd, and it's easier for me just to accept the lack of will, that we are reactive and rationalizing, not pro-active and rational.

Greg Bear, in his excellent novel Moving Mars, offers a model where (if memory serves, it's been a while) quantum randomness serves as a distributed bank, kind of like the "give a penny, take a penny" things near cash registers, so if you have to violate physics you can repair the bookkeeping locally by fudging the randomness. It's a clever concept for a book. Whether it would work in "reality" (and I use the term with some amusement), is hard to say.

Also, in the same year as The Matrix there was another film that was much more elegant and thoughtful on similar topics but got less press: The Thirteenth Floor. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139809/)
With excellent performances by Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent D'onofrio, I might add. If you have not seen that movie, I highly recommend it. By contrast, I found it hard to take The Matrix seriously. YMMV.

Back to perception, then there's always John Carpenter's 1974 cult-classic Dark Star. :) The phenomenology scene with the (smart) bomb is a classic. Relevant excerpts here (13:17) on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/86186993. Though if you're in more of a hurry you might prefer here (4:25) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73PsFKtIck. The shorter one captures the critical scene but without useful context.

#Philosophy #MetaPhysics #Phenomenology #Perception #Simulation #Simulacrum #Simulacra #FreeWill
#Physics #QuantumRandomness
#Movies #TheMatrix #TheThirteenthFloor #DarkStar
#Books #MovingMars
#TV #StarTrek

If you grew up with psychedelic Lisa Frank art of dolphins and rainbows, you might get the impression that dolphins and rainbows are inherently kind of kitsch.

But the real thing--I mean real wild dolphins who are free, and real rainbows you happen upon--are amazing. Why is the representation so terrible when the real thing is so good? I present my theory:

>> An aesthetic of dolphins and rainbows <<

https://rinsemiddlebliss.com/posts/2023-03-10-rainbows-dolphins/

#blog #blogging #dolphins #rainbow #aesthetics #simulacra #mimesis

Why are dolphins and rainbows so wonderful while pictures of dolphins and rainbows are so dreadful?

Read my latest blog post where I work through the question and give my theory:

** An aesthetic of dolphins and rainbows **

https://rinsemiddlebliss.com/posts/2023-03-10-rainbows-dolphins/

#blog #blogging #dolphins #rainbow #aesthetics #simulacra #mimesis

Indiescovery Episode 4: Valentine's Day special - https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/indiescovery-episode-4-valentines-day-special #Danganronpa2:GoodbyeDespair #IndiescoveryPodcast #BoyfriendDungeon #HotSpringsStory #MysticMessenger #NightintheWoods #TheWalkingDead #AYearofSprings #StardewValley #Indiescovery #MonsterProm #Transistor #Unpacking #Firewatch #Simulacra #Podcast #Dredge #Indie #Hades

#Mosstodon

Bowl of fake moss resting on off-white, speckled floor tiling at Marshall's department store in New Hyde Park, NY, USA, seen Feb 20, 2023.

#simulacra #fake #imitation #moss

Capitalism/branding results in consistency. We want to form a reliable opinion on a drink or food brand. This lack of variety promotes monopolies and ecological harm, e.g., massive centralised production + transportation instead of local companies, or lack of crop variety.

#Environment #Capitalism #Branding #Marketing #McDonaldisation #Simulacra #BrandRecall #Brand #BiodiversityLoss

By the Seventies it was becoming clear which bits of the Sixties were fun, how to do them, and we enjoyed some of them.
Now they look like #nostalgia.
Not proper nostalgia, like we used to have, but a reasonable simulacrum.

And as #photographers we are right into #simulacra
#photograph #Sixties

Mostly we forget, in our haste, that #money is just a (rather poor) heuristic for value. It manages to avoid measuring the vast majority of things of actual value, given the brevity and ephemerality of life: love, #compassion, connection, community, aspiration, hope.

The value of #mindfulness is infinite and cannot be traded in a market.

The value of #authenticity rises in a world of #simulacra.

The map is not the territory.

Integrity is its own reward.

Yayoi Kusama robot @ Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue 🤖.... soooo incredibly lifelike, until you see the eyes 👀
https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-a-spot-for-seeing-spots/ #Robotics #Robot #Art #simulacra #simulacrum #YayoiKusama #NYC

Phones have not looked like this since the 90s. I have never owned a phone like this. The banana phone bit will outlast the curved plastic phone. Similacra in action

#coconuthooves #simulacra #simulacrum #bananaphone

Is it OK to just sit back and enjoy this lumpy, uneven, over-budgeted copy of a copy? #tolkien #fanfic #ringsofpower #simulacra https://fabulistmagazine.com/lord-of-the-simulacra-notes-on-on-amazons-rings-of-power/

"Feel like it just highlights the absurdity of property and the economy"

This is what happens whenever some people have too much money such that money loses all meaning & when they look for meaning they turn to narcissism: Of value is having their name — “killroy was here” — forever associate with the artwork, which qualities are essentially irrelevant in this exchange (a #simulacra), the act of purchasing & owning the artwork becomes a unique act of *performance art* which has value.

ENDLICH mal ein neues #Simulacra! Die Dropchancen in #TowerOfFantasy sind manchmal echt meh >_<

Capital’s lie…

https://post.news/article/2JYJAeeqF3ftfoA9ZOXdDDNZYzt

#trump #Jan6Committee #jeanbaudrillard #simulacra #Simulation #capitalism #corporatemedia

The Driftwood Demon did not like me taking a picture of his house 😄

#WelshPhotography #Rhyl #landscape #coast #simulacra #NaturalSculpture #nikon #z50 #sunset

Well.

Happens to me that I am talking about #Simulacra with a #Bot.

What is this? #Postmodernism? #Dadaism? #Surrealism?

https://social.bau-ha.us/@N3m0/109535857315719116