Editing Hyperreality (section)

== Key relational themes ==
The concepts most fundamental to hyperreality are those of simulation and the simulacrum, first conceptualized by [[Jean Baudrillard]] in his book ''[[Simulacra and Simulation]]''. The two terms are separate entities with relational origin connections to Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality.

===Simulation===
[[Simulation]] is characterized by a blending of 'reality' and representation, where there is no clear indication of where the former stops and the latter begins. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance; "It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal."<ref>{{cite book|last=Baudrillard|first=Jean|title=Simulacra & Simulation|year=1994|publisher=University of Michigan Press|location=The Precession of Simulacra|page=1|url=https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf|access-date=2013-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521140751/https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf|archive-date=2013-05-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> Baudrillard suggests that simulation no longer takes place in a physical realm; it takes place within a space not categorized by physical limits i.e., within ourselves, technological simulations, etc.

===Simulacrum===
The [[simulacrum]] is "an image without resemblance"; as [[Gilles Deleuze]] summarized, it is the forsaking of "moral existence in order to enter into aesthetic existence".<ref>{{cite book|last=Deleuze|first=Gilles |chapter=Appendix 1: The Simulacrum and Ancient Philosophy |title=The Logic of Sense|year=1990|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231059831|page=257}}</ref> However, Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes—through sociocultural compression—truth in its own right. 

There are four steps of hyperreal reproduction:
# Basic reflection of reality, i.e. in immediate perception
# Perversion of reality, i.e. in representation
# Pretense of reality, where there is no model
# Simulacrum, which "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever"<ref>{{cite web|last=Mann|first=Doug|title=Jean Baudrillard|url=http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/baudrillard1.htm|work=A Very Short Introduction|access-date=16 March 2013}}</ref>

===Hyperstition===
The concept of "hyperstition" as expounded upon by the English collective [[Cybernetic Culture Research Unit]] generalizes the notion of hyperreality to encompass the concept of "fictional entities that make themselves real." In Nick Land's own words:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Carstens |first=Delphi |date=2009 |title='Hyperstition: An Introduction' Delphi Carstens Interviews Nick Land. |url=https://www.orphandriftarchive.com/articles/hyperstition-an-introduction/}}</ref>
{{Block quote|text=Hyperstition is a positive [[feedback circuit]] including culture as a component. It can be defined as the experimental (techno-)science of [[Self-fulfilling prophecy|self-fulfilling prophecies]]. Superstitions are merely false beliefs, but hyperstitions – by their very existence as ideas –function causally to bring about their own reality.|author=[[Nick Land]]}}The concept of hyperstition is also related to the concept of "theory-fiction", in which philosophy, [[critical theory]] and [[postmodern literature]] speculate on actual reality and engage with concepts for potentialities and virtualities. An oft-cited example of such a concept is ''[[cyberspace]]''—originating in [[William Gibson]]'s 1984 novel ''[[Neuromancer]]''—which is a concept for the convergence between virtualities and actualities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holt |first=Macon |date=2020 |title=Hyperstitional Theory-Fiction |url=https://www.full-stop.net/2020/10/21/features/essays/macon-holt/hyperstitional-theory-fiction/}}</ref> By the mid-1990s, the realization of this concept had begun to emerge on a mass scale in the form of the internet.

=== Consequence ===
The truth was already being called into question with the rise of media and [[technology]], but with the presence of hyperreality being used most and embraced as a new technology, there are a couple of issues or consequences of hyperreality. It's difficult enough to hear something on the news and choose not to believe it, but it's quite another to see an image of an event or anything and use your empirical sense to determine whether the news is true or false, which is one of the consequences of hyperrealism.<ref>{{Citation |title=11 The Gulf War Did Not Take Place |date=2002-05-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781503619630-014 |work=Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings |pages=231–253 |publisher=Stanford University Press |doi=10.1515/9781503619630-014 |isbn=9781503619630 |s2cid=246263911 |access-date=2022-04-12|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The first is the possibility of various simulations being used to influence the audience, resulting in an inability to differentiate fiction from reality, which affects the overall truth value of a subject at hand. Another implication or disadvantage is the possibility of being manipulated by what we see.

The audience can interpret different messages depending on the ideology of the entity behind an image. As a result, power equates to control over the media and the people.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bordon |first=Yvonne |date=2013-01-21 |title=T cells take a break from IL-7 |journal=Nature Reviews Immunology |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=71 |doi=10.1038/nri3388 |pmid=23334243 |s2cid=9536781 |issn=1474-1733|doi-access=free }}</ref> Celebrities, for example, have their photographs taken and altered so that the public can see the final result. The public then perceives celebrities based on what they have seen rather than how they truly are. It can progress to the point where celebrities appear completely different. As a result of celebrities' body modifications and editing, there has been an increase in surgeries and a decrease in self-esteem during adolescence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ozimek |first1=Phillip |last2=Bierhoff |first2=Hans-Werner |date=2020-10-02 |title=All my online-friends are better than me – three studies about ability-based comparative social media use, self-esteem, and depressive tendencies |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1642385 |journal=Behaviour & Information Technology |language=en |volume=39 |issue=10 |pages=1110–1123 |doi=10.1080/0144929X.2019.1642385 |s2cid=199008994 |issn=0144-929X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Because the truth is threatened, a similar outcome for hyperreality is possible.