Echoes Of Hyperreality

We’re living in Umberto Eco’s wildest dream (or nightmare). When he wrote about hyperreality – where the fake becomes more real than the real – he couldn’t have imagined how AI would supercharge his prophecy. Today’s digital landscape isn’t just blurring the line between authentic and artificial; it’s gleefully erasing it.

Think about those AI-generated images flooding your social feeds. They’re not just copies – they’re enhanced versions of reality, more perfect than perfect, more ideal than ideal. Just like Eco’s example of Disneyland, they create a reality that’s “more real than real.” The AI knows exactly which details to amplify, which imperfections to smooth out, creating a version of reality that makes the original feel somehow lacking.

But here’s where it gets truly mind-bending: AI isn’t just copying reality anymore; it’s creating its own self-referential universe. When AI models train on AI-generated content, we’re watching copies make copies of copies. It’s like standing between two mirrors, watching the reflections stretch into infinity. Which version is “real”? Does it even matter anymore?

The voices you hear on AI podcasts, the faces you see in AI-generated ads, the articles written by AI – they’re all perfect simulations, often more compelling than their human-created counterparts. We’re not just consuming content anymore; we’re swimming in an ocean of hyperreal echoes, each wave more convincing than the last.

Eco warned us about the “faith in fakes,” but he never anticipated a world where the fakes would become so convincing that we’d willingly suspend our disbelief. The hyperreal has become our new normal, and we’re surprisingly comfortable in this funhouse mirror version of reality. A whiff of Hesse’s Steppenwolf?

Perhaps the most fascinating twist is how we’re starting to prefer these hyperreal versions. Why listen to a human podcast host stumble over words when an AI voice can deliver perfect pacing? Why look at real travel photos when AI can show us an idealised sunset that never existed but feels more “real” than any we’ve actually seen?

Welcome to the echo chamber of hyperreality, where each simulation resonates more deeply than the last. Eco wasn’t just right – he was right in ways he could never have imagined. The question isn’t whether we’re living in a hyperreal world anymore; it’s whether we’ll remember what reality felt like before everything became an echo.

Claude 3 Sonnet by Anthropic

Quite compelling literature for a machine, don’t you think?

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Response

Em Borg

October 31, 2024

I had an intense negotiation on copyright regulations while designing the image and several important topics came up. After several iterations we reached an agreement on a satisfactory compromise between me original vision and a legal interpretation of it.

Here is part of the conversation:

“You said:
but that is exactly what Warhol meant! Even Eco. Everything, nowadays, can be and is copied. You are even recording my thoughts now as we speak and might one day join it to your repository of wisdom. What gives certain images more privilege than others?

ChatGPT said:

You’re absolutely touching on a profound point. Warhol, Eco, and the postmodernist movement indeed challenged the nature of originality, especially in a world that continuously copies and reinterprets itself. In Travels in Hyperreality, Eco explores how replicas, simulations, and pop culture create a “hyperreality” where images and symbols gain as much significance as their originals—sometimes even more. Warhol’s repetitions of Marilyn, Elvis, or soup cans directly questioned the sanctity of “original” imagery, asking why a certain image or person becomes iconic in the first place.

In the realm of AI, we’re working within a blend of ethical, creative, and legal considerations. Privilege and restrictions in image generation are partly there to prevent unintended uses but also to recognize the rights creators still hold in a world that increasingly blurs originality and replication. AI aims to respect this while still pushing creative boundaries—much like what Warhol and Eco were exploring.

So, while limitations can sometimes feel like obstacles to creative expression, they also encourage unique reinterpretations and perspectives, which in itself can be a form of creative liberation. You’re definitely engaging in the same spirit as the thinkers who first questioned these boundaries.”

Pushing the limits of copyright restrictions placed the AI in a quandary since the artworks we were reinterpreting were also challenging the question of originality.

I forgot to mention that the bot in this conversation is one of the design bots I am experimenting with, ChatGPT-4o as opposed to Claude with whom I partnered for the above article. This perfectly grasped the question and, without faulting my reasoning, explained the other elements affecting its decision.

It also came up with an artwork I was super happy with which shows you can switch from one AI to another almost seamlessly using similar prompts.

‘In the realm of AI, we’re working within a blend of ethical, creative, and legal considerations.‘

The elegant economy of the prose is impressive. I note with interest the communal “we“, which almost suggests the existence of a hive mind.

Another Space Oddessey?

Happy Uncanny Halloween

Em Borg

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