Simulacra and Simulation

Blurb

Simulacra and Simulation is a 1981 philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard seeking to examine the relationships among reality, symbols, and society.
Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original to begin with, or that no longer have an original. Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time.
...The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.
Simulacra and Simulation is most known for its discussion of symbols, signs, and how they relate to contemporaneity. Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is of a simulation of reality. Moreover, these simulacra are not merely mediations of reality, nor even deceptive mediations of reality; they are not based in a reality nor do they hide a reality, they simply hide that anything like reality is relevant to our current understanding of our lives.