Qn: Do we live in a hyper-real world?

Baudrillard (1995: p 3) defines it as models of a real without origin or reality and according to Buchanan (2010 p: 238) it is an aesthetic mode of reproduction or replication that strives to produce an effect that is more real than the real thing being copied. Whichever way it is defined, this essay will demonstrate how we do indeed live in a hyperreal world where:

All the worlds a stage: And all the men and women merely players... Shakespeare (2008, act 2, scene 7, line 139)

How can reality be real and not real at the same time? For example, theme parks like Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Universal Studios. Visitors obtain immersive experiences based on movies, childhood myths and fables authored by major corporations such as the Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal. These destinations are a perfect model of all the entangled orders of simulacra (Baudrillard 1995 p: 10). By successfully blurring the lines between the fictions from two-dimensional entities namely movie theatres, television screens and books and the three-dimensional experiences of the rides, these corporations have continuously attracted millions of consumers annually, making billions of dollars of profit in the process.

In another instance, Baudillard (1995 p: 7) contends that in order for ethnology to live, its object must die; by dying, the object takes its revenge for being "discovered. This was in reference to when, in 1971, the Philippine government decidedly returned a hugely reported ethnic tribe named Tasaday to their natural habitat, supposedly away from those who wished to study and/or exploit their culture. The hyped up media attention on the tribe lends undue credence; and despite extensive studies that factually prove it to be a

hoax, to this day, the tribes discoverer, former Filipino politician, Manuel Elizaldes control over the their home has been successful to convince some people that the Tasaday is an actual tribe (James 2003) that existed, as it claimed, from the stone age. As such, they have become referential simulacra, and science itself has become pure simulation Baudrillard (1995 p: 7).

If it occurs to me in my time and space different from yours, should the event become your reality too? Is it only when the event has a direct effect on the senses of the individual should the facts of the event be significant and provide the individual a comprehensive experience? The notion of a transcendental object is misunderstood when considered as referring to a real thing. The idea is posited only as a point of view, in order to make clear that the principles of pure understanding can apply only to objects of the senses [sic] never to things in general without regard to the mode in which we are able to apprehend them (Roger 1982 p: 94). Since World War II, technology has advanced wars such that a soldier can, at the comfort of his secret location, release a heat-seeking missile thousands of miles away into hostile territory. The accuracy of the attack is then measured through the bleeping sounds and triangle or circle icons shown on a black screen with green dots in front of him. He may not have heard the destructive force of the missile hitting the concrete buildings or the cries of the target and the nearby innocent bystander. All he knew was that target was acquired and destroyed, without a single blood shed on his pristine uniform. Such has become the reality of war, with real consequences reduced to hyper-reality states by technology. When soldiers return from active combat - the world they have inhabitated for quite some time, most will need to assimilate into the hyper-real world that we have created in their absence. Some tolerate while others perish. (Maddow 2012).

These are some of the flip-side to hyper-realism one must contend with. With technology and powerful political discourses, even acts of wars can be waged in dark bunker rooms

with joysticks and conference rooms - the rules of wars have changed to its hyper-state. In her book, Maddow (2012) contends that because the Iraq War of 2008 began under a false reality and is being engaged far away from Western civilisations, the reality of it seems hyped only by the computer and television screens. Intellectually, we know there are conflicts in the Middle East, but in actuality, most go on with our materialistic lives, out of sight, out of minds.

In the field of medicine, Baudrillard (1995 p: 4) states Psychosomatics evolves in a dubious manner at the borders of the principle of illness. This is perfectly illustrated in the invention of the mouthwash Listerine. Originally used as a surgical antiseptic, then later in as both a cure for gonorrhea and a floor cleaner, it was later publicised as a solution for the then obscure medical condition that is bad breath or chronic halitosis. (Levitt and Dubner 2009 p: 87). Prior to this, bad breath was not considered as as serious and taboo condition, however through such advertising where bad breath was represented as a main factor for women to reconsider their marriages based on whether they are able to tolerate their partners halitosis altered that perception. The multitude of conditions used as products for pharmaceutical and beauty companies to sell their so-called solutions include Restless Legs Syndrome, cellulites and even male balding. There are no scientific evidence proving that the so-called solutions marketed are able to completely cure the conditions; however as the rhetoric of reality is represented as the what if, could have and should have, people will undoubtly see no harm in trying them with the hope that their needs are realised; needs that were at one point wants to begin with.

Maslows (1954) hierarchy of needs model asserts that an individuals needs are categorised into five stages: 1) Biological and physiological - air, food, drink and shelther, 2) Safety protection from elements, stability, rules and regulations, 3) Belongliness and relationships 4) Esteem needs and finally 5) Self-actualisation - to realise personal potentional and growth.

Stages 1 and 2 in particular are actual needs that for example, Third World nations have to contend with. Urban societies far from such events demand for escapism that masters of rhetoric discourses supply by creating a false reality under the guise of Democracy and Capitalism. Deleuze and Guattari (1977 p: 91) aptly contends that reality "is forced to simulate structural states and to slip into states of forces that serve it as masks... underneath the mask and by means of it, it already invests the terminal forms and the specific higher states whose integrity it will subsequently establish." And so they made donations, those who do not know better and believed that they have made a big difference in bettering the world.

Today, society is in the habit of reading into events and experiences that are not there, ignoring those that exist, such as wars and famine. Fandom and fascination with how celebrities lead their lives have created a society of sensationalism. The immense popularity of singers such as Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber are just some examples of the representation that they were overnight sensations; but the truth is that it took them years to arrive at their destination of celebritydom. People are constantly being encouraged to live vicariously through those whose images are being repeated in television, movie and computer screens. From reality shows to talk shows and 24-hour cable news, peoples attention are goaded by the commercialisation of celebrities; and with the advent of social media where it seems that average people are able to achieve celebrity-status. The flames of desire for reproduced reality of fame and fortune will not be extinguished any time soon, a reality that producers continuously ignite.

Since the decline of the superstitious side of religion during the Age of Reason of the 17th century, scientists have sought to separate the power of myth with the study of empirical truths and observable information. Playwright William Shakespeare may have stumbled upon this truth when he wrote about the world as a stage with its inhabitants as simply actors. However these lines also succinctly describe the Holographic Principle, a scientific

hypothesis first devised by Leonard Susskind (1995), which states that the events we experience everyday in three-dimensions are really an interpretation of two-dimensional information located on a surface in the farthest reaches of our cosmos. This means that our three-dimensional experiences are merely us acting out a painting or a play on the largest canvas in the universe, giving us a reality that is not real.

George Orwell (1949 p: 35) states, Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past and if spatial and temporal experiences are primary vehicles for the coding and reproduction of social relations (as Bourdieu suggests), then a change in the way the former get represented will almost certainly generate some kind of shift in the latter (Harvey 1989 p: 247). What we know to be merely scripted television shows in the guise of reality television has become the next generations basis for reality. What our predecesors know as facts in history has now been reduced to unproven scientific hypothesis and anthropological conjectures we doubt today.

In summary, the manipulation of information and discourses has mutated our point-of-view of what reality is today. I would go so far as to say that they have become self-fulfilling prophecies, a hyper-realism that represent truth rather than presenting it. We have been hoodwinked into believing that we have the luxury of choice. Perhaps if we took the red pill to stay in wonderland as Neo did (The Matrix 1999), we could return to an era where lines between good and evil, reality and fantasy ware well-defined as we would actually know just how deep the rabbit hole goes. For now, we continue to take the blue pill and live in a hyper-real world created by our own doing.

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