Simulacra and Simulation

Simulacra and simulation is the idea that the world we live in is just a copy of the world we think we live in. It's like a copying machine that takes an original and makes an exact copy. The original is reality and the copy is a simulation of reality. In other words, almost everything we think is real is actually an imitation of the original. For example, the words we use to communicate with each other are symbols – they are made up words that don't actually exist in reality.