Simulacra
Phillip K. Dick calls his synthetic humans in "We can Build You" Simulacrum, but where did he get such a label from? And what does it mean. It is likely he got the idea from Philosopher Jean Baudrillard's theories on Simulacra and Simulations. (Wikipedia, 2006) According to Baudrillard, what is real is clouded by the countless representations of what is real that is inherent in the world today. He calls these representations, signs. But anything could be a sign, not just the ones they use to warn you of danger or that there is a big sale on at the shopping centre. In "We can Build You" the synthetic human beings are representations of real humans and thus are called simulacra for they are simulations of human beings. However, throughout the book we see that the two simulated human beings act, talk and think like real people. They are treated by the other characters as real people. So, the simulations become the real - so what becomes of the real? At one point in the story, the main character wonders if he himself is a simulacra. It's frightening isn't it? The world is full of representations in the media, all around us, everywhere. What would happen if we did create simulated humans? In fact we have - look at David Tench! (For those who don't know he is the animated host of an Australian talk show) What is real anymore? The Simulacra are out there.
Reference: "Simulacra and Simulation", taken from, "The Wikipedia Encyclopaedia", December 15, 2006, at, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_%26_Simulation>
Reference: "Simulacra and Simulation", taken from, "The Wikipedia Encyclopaedia", December 15, 2006, at, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacra_%26_Simulation>
Passionate Apathy