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Simulation and Society

CORE 499 (63580)
Spring 2025
2 Units
Thursdays 1:00PM-2:50PM
LVL 301
Dr. Curtis Fletcher
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Some technological developments can appear near totalistic in the way they remake how we think—they permeate everything, including deeply rooted perspectives about knowledge, politics, society, and even reality. Simulation is one such set of technologies. Simulation here refers to a broad range of settings: the temporary virtual reality and gaming environments into which we voluntarily enter; the app-based or online experiences which we increasingly favor over real-world interactions; the artificial, AI-media and bot-dominated online spaces into which we may soon find ourselves; and the fully simulated world in which we may unknowingly live.

To explore these shifts, we will define ‘simulation’ in a broad sense, as any digital representation and/or statistical model that is used as a proxy for its more complex real-world equivalent, whereby elements of the real-world version are necessarily simplified or omitted in order to replicate it within a controlled framework. For example, virtual reality simplifies real environments to provide streamlined visual representations; AI companions mimic human behavior without lived experience; and generative AI predicts patterns in order to simulate language, images, and video without actually understanding meaning or the laws of physics.

This course will provide students with the opportunity to use the technologies of extended reality (XR) and AI-powered simulation as a lens through which to explore the shifting nature of human values, interactions, and attitudes in the early 21st century. In doing so, the course will engage students in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary study of virtual worlds, preparing them to engage with our increasingly simulated digital spaces in critical and informed ways.

Students in the course will also take advantage of technologies available at the Ahmanson Lab with support from the professor and dedicated Lab staff. Students will have the chance to explore and use XR technologies, generative AI tools, bot systems, and a brain-computer interface, gaining knowledge and hands-on experience while engaging with the themes of the course.

Through readings, discussions, and hands-on exploration of relevant technologies, students will engage with the following kinds of questions:

How have virtual worlds evolved, from their origins in early science fiction, mechanical simulations, stereoscopic technologies, and early film, to the immersive digital environments of today? And how have the altered how we represent reality?
What philosophical questions are raised by virtual reality and immersive environments, and how does the Simulation Hypothesis challenge our understanding of reality?
How does the increasing simulation of human behavior through data models affect political and consumer manipulation? What are the implications of the rise of artificial identities and AI-generated content for our sense of authenticity and trust in digital spaces?
What strategies can we develop to critically navigate and verify information in increasingly automated and simulated digital spaces?

Building a Class website

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See the Learning Objectives for CORE 499

Over the course of the semester, the class will also build a website that features students' research, reflections, and insights on simulation and society. The website, which will consist primarily of the writing assignments and final projects outlined under “Course Requirements," and will include three sections: a collection of essays and creative projects that document and examine topics related to the history, philosophy, and politics of simulation; an interactive timeline tracing the evolution of simulation technologies and their impact on society; and a series of brief entries providing strategies for critically engaging the growing complexity of simulated and artificial online spaces. Finally, the site will feature ways for readers to meaningfully navigate between these sections, allowing them to move fluidly from larger argument-driven essays to specific moments in a timeline or individual strategies and back again.

The website will provide students with the opportunity to add their own writing to the site as well as to help organize it, learning and applying critical digital literacy skills by linking various elements of the site into a clear and coherent scholarly information architecture.

To build the website, the class will utilize Scalar, a scholarly authoring and publishing platform developed at the Ahmanson Lab (this website is built with Scalar). As one of Scalar's co-creators, Dr. Fletcher has created over one-hundred thematic class websites and will actively build the website alongside students.

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