Editing Simulacra and Simulation (section)

=== Degrees ===
''Simulacra and Simulation'' identifies three types of simulacra and identifies each with a historical period:
# First order, associated with the premodern period, where representation is clearly an artificial placemarker for the real item. The uniqueness of objects and situations marks them as irreproducibly real and signification obviously gropes towards this reality.
# Second order, associated with the [[modernity]] of the [[Industrial Revolution]], where distinctions between representation and reality break down due to the proliferation of [[mass production|mass-reproducible]] copies of items, turning them into commodities.  The commodity's ability to imitate reality threatens to replace the authority of the original version, because the copy is just as "real" as its [[prototype]].
# Third order, associated with the [[postmodernity]] of [[Late Capitalism]], where the simulacrum precedes the original and the distinction between reality and representation vanishes. There is only the simulation, and originality becomes a totally meaningless concept.<ref name="PH">{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Hagerty|title=Jean Baudrillard: Live Theory|chapter=Simulation and the Decay of the Real|publisher=Continuum|location=London, England|date=2004|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jeanbaudrillardl0000hega/page/49 49–68]|isbn=0-8264-6283-9|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jeanbaudrillardl0000hega/page/49}}</ref>