Thinking About Simulacra and AI
Recently my thoughts have dwelt on simulacra — that is: copies, images, portraits of things and how these relate to reality1. Philosophers too have contemplated this issue for a long time. From the ancient Greeks to the modern and post-modern philosophers, it seems as if everyone has chipped in to some extent. The topic is perhaps thence saturated with ideas, but I don’t believe that it has become obsolete, for the age in which we live is not the same as the one of which the great philosophers wrote. Perhaps there is yet something new to be explored: the context may have changed, but the way that things work has probably stayed the same. It is exactly that new context which develops the concept and expands its meaning and implications.
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