Section Three: Weeks 8-11
Section Three: The Social and Political Implications of Simulation
In this section, we’ll shift our focus to the social and political. We’ll start to unpack the ways in which virtual, simulated, and artificial experiences blur the lines between reality and imitation. We'll explore the reduction of individuals to statistical models; the rise of artificial people, places, content, and entities online; and ultimately, our growing preference for simulated experiences.March 13
Simulating Behavior: We will explore how we as individuals are increasingly rendered as statistical models through simulations, examining the implications for manipulation in political, consumer, and surveillance contexts.
Readings:
Introduction + Chapter 3. Zuboff, S. The age of surveillance capitalism. Profile Books, 2019.
Chapter 1. Wylie, Christopher. Mindf* ck: Cambridge Analytica and the plot to break America. Random House, 2019.
Website:
Dedicated in-class time for design and development of class website.
March 27
Simulating Others: We will examine the rise of artificial and simulated entities online, focusing on the proliferation of fake accounts, AI-generated content, and the implications of theories like the Dead Internet for our understanding of authenticity and identity in digital spaces.
Readings:
Dennett, Daniel C. "The problem with counterfeit people." The Atlantic 16 (2023).
Walter, Y. Artificial influencers and the dead internet theory. AI & Soc (2024).
Park, Joon Sung, et al. "Generative agents: Interactive simulacra of human behavior." Proceedings of the 36th annual acm symposium on user interface software and technology. 2023.
Interactive Session:
Students will create and deploy bot personas as well as complete a How to Spot a Bot exercise.
April 3
Simulating Everything. We will examine the technological and social factors pushing us towards simulated experiences (e.g. they are more efficient to produce/scale and feel safer than real life experiences) and the increasing role of simulations in replacing real-world interactions. We’ll also explore how our current cycles of screen-based digital dependency might escalate with the progression to fully immersive, AI-driven social experiences.
Readings:
Zhu, Zheng, et al. "Is sora a world simulator? a comprehensive survey on general world models and beyond." arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.03520 (2024).
Assignments:
Writing response for Section Section 3 due April 2, 5pm.
Website:
Dedicated in-class time for design and development of class website.
April 10
The Simulation Hypothesis revisited. We’ll return to the Simulation Hypothesis, examining it in light of all past topics in Section 3. We’ll explore the ways in which the Simulation Hypothesis is imagined in popular culture, including the “glitch in the Matrix,” phenomenon and the popularity of the Mandela Effect on social media and elsewhere. We’ll also consider the darker social consequences of accepting the hypothesis, including the idea of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) and the legal "Matrix defense."
Readings:
Selections from Castro, Jessica. A Glitch in the Matrix: Tales of the Unexplainable Unreal. Sterling Ethos: New York, 2024. [Download]
Chapter 2. Virk, Rizwan. The Simulated Multiverse: An MIT Computer Scientist Explores Parallel Universes, the Simulation Hypothesis, Quantum Computing and the Mandela Effect. Vol. 2. Bayview Books, LLC, 2021. [Download]
Interactive Session:
Students will create glitch art using audio, video, images, text, or 3D objects that reflect the potential distortions or breakdowns one might experience if our reality were a simulated environment.
