Excellent question Tim.
The title of the book is “Simulacra and Simulationâ€, which comprises of a collection of manuscripts by Baudrillard that are considered by many as the pioneer of postmodernism. Neo's software was next to a page entitled “On Nihilism â€.
What's interesting is that embedded within the essays in “Simulacra and Simulationâ€, are the central ideas of Baudrillard that we are now living in an age of hyper-reality and simulation where nothing actually exist and everything are just simulations.
This concept is echoed in The Matrix, where the world that we are all so familiar with turns out to be an elaborate computer simulation. Morpheus even quotes Baudrillard after first breaking Neo out of the matrix and showing him a simulation of what the actual world looks like: "Welcome to the desert of the real." Cool, huh?
The essay, “On Nihilismâ€, explores the notion of “Melancholia†(Baudrillard 162) which Baudrillard advocates, is omnipresent in our society as a result of the huge proliferation of media images. According to him,
“Melancholia is the fundamental tonality of functional systems, of current systems of simulation, of programming and information. Melancholia is the inherent quality of the mode of the disappearance of meaning, of the mode of the volatilization of meaning in operational systems. And we are all melancholic. Melancholia is the brutal disaffection that characterizes our saturated systems.â€
(Baudrillard 162)
Deep thinking, huh? That's probably more than you all needed (or wanted) to know but there it is.
OK, next question ??????????????????
What is Thomas Anderson's (Neo) date of birth? place of birth? mother's maiden name? father's name? and what high schools did he attend?
I know there are technically 5 qs but (hint) all answers can be found at the same place in the movie.
Good luck.
oz