Contemporary, or postmodern, society is characterized by a newfound
ability to control the world of nature and worlds of illusion. It immerses people in a
virtual environment of images and simulations, and encourages the acting out of desires,
including desires that once seemed off-limits to action and experience. Ultimately, it
seeks to turn reality into a simulation and make simulations seem real, so humanity will
have the ability to control and create its surroundings at will.
How does postmodern society use
this newfound power? It certainly has used it to enormous good. But it has also used it to
create an emerging worldwide culture in which images, simulations, story lines,
performances and rhetoric are employed to manipulate the public and sell it products,
phony candidates and false ideas. Thus postmodern society turns out to be a realm of
illusion in more than one sense.
This section takes substantial
excerpts from around the site on these overlapping subjects of postmodern society,
simulation, and technology, and collects them into "chapters" to reveal some of
the essential characteristics of the age.
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