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Jonathan, do you think we’re living in an age of simulacra, where the fake has replaced the real and the imposter has transmuted the actual via technology? Think face filters, etc. What are the implications of reality augmenting technology on symbols and how are we as orthodox Christians to live in the world of fake and augmented things? Thank you for your time and attention. Obviously, Dan is referring to a theory by Jean Boudrillard, who’s a postmodern theorist, famous especially in the 1980s, who talked about the question of simulation and simulacra and how in some ways the world is accelerating. The simulacra of the world is accelerating. The first thing to understand about that is in some ways all technology, all civilization, is on that path, is on the line of simulation. Everything that augments human behavior is on that line. It’s not so easy to see when you at first notice it as just tools or things like that, but then especially when simulation starts to refer back to things that are related to intelligence, photographs, the technology of representation, you have paintings, you have photographs, then you have the screen. The screen is the main one because we don’t realize that the screen frames and reframes. You probably have heard the expression, dreaming in technicolor, which was something that came out in the 1960s, which was the augmented colors in movies was affecting people’s dreams and people all of a sudden were dreaming. They realized that they were dreaming with the colors that they saw in movies. This type of augmentation now has reached, of course, levels that are crazy with, like you said, filters on phones, where the filter on the phone will enhance your picture in a way that will make you think that it’s more real than your experience. The first thing to understand is that this process is kind of an inevitable aspect of the fall. It’s an inevitable aspect of the world of technae, the world of civilization. As Christians, we have to realize that it is in one way not evil in itself, but it is dangerous. It is dangerous because if we forget, it’s all about forgetting, like if we forget the connection, then all of a sudden we can have things like simulations of simulations of simulations and a kind of unending layers of augmentation and also a type of augmentation which is connected to desire especially. I think this is already seen in Genesis in the story of Cain and how the daughters of Cain, the daughters of men, are seduced by the sons of heaven. This idea that there’s a relationship between augmentation of technology and seduction, because in some ways it can be a hyper stimulation as well. It’s a hyper stimulation which pinpoints an aspect of you, kind of augments it in a way that can capture you. Of course there are many examples of that. Hopefully that helps you to understand it. But we have to be careful not to be simplistic about it. We don’t have to be Amish, we don’t have to be Luddites, we just have to be wise and understand the difficulty of this problem of augmentation. Especially for Christians like on Facebook, on Instagram, on social media, it’s a tool but we have to be very careful that it doesn’t frame your reality. If you’re attentive to yourself you’ll notice that if you’re not careful that you end up doing that. I want to have an experience that I can now then put on Facebook. I want to have an experience that will make a good picture for me to post on Instagram. Now you’re getting lost in the world of augmentation and the world of simulation. All of a sudden the simulation is driving your actions and driving your connection to reality itself. That’s something definitely to be careful about. Paula Bottington, hey Paula, it’s good to see you in the chat. That’s great. Hope you’re doing well. Most of you I hope know that I did a few interviews with Paula on my channel. You can check that out. Paula says, John Lanyer, VR pioneer, also talks about how switching back from VR can enhance our appreciation of reality as we can see more clearly what level of detail. How that reality has to offer. All that reality has to offer. It is in some ways the thing about the reality of just raw experience is that it’s very complex. It’s a complex and subtle experience. What VR does or what enhanced technology does like Instagram or Facebook is that it points. tightly. Then it points in the sense that it enhances particular aspects. Aspects that are related to certain desires and certain cues of status, certain cues of beauty, certain cues of attraction and seduction. It can be more immediately satisfying. Think about the difference between eating a good meal and eating candy. It’s something like that where in some ways eating a good meal is more complex and has more subtlety. Eating candy is that easy kick. That’s the danger I think of things like VR and just social media in general is that it’s a more immediate satisfaction. In some ways, not in some ways, in most ways a very shallow one. David Markham says, actually we see a reproduction of a simulacra of you. Exactly. It’s like if I didn’t think that there is a power in simulation and a power in simulacra, then I wouldn’t be doing any of this because your vision of me is very framed. It’s framed in many ways. It’s framed in time. It’s framed in space. You don’t see that right now I’m not wearing socks. It’s like I’m not going to show you that. Everything is kind of framed towards your perception. That’s important to understand.