Cybersphere: A discussion with Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard is perhaps the most important theorist of the "after modern". Though he says himself he has "nothing to do with postmodernism", many interpret him as (along with Jean-François Lyotard) as among the most important prophets of a truly "postmodern" era. His works have attracted high praise and derision all over the world. Among his most important works are: In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities, Fatal Strategies, America, Cool Memories, The Transparency of Evil, The Illusion of the End, The Mirror of Production, Forget Foucault, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Symbolic Exchange and Death, The Perfect Crime, and most recently Paroxysm.

by Claude Thibaut

Mankind face to the machine and to its own reflection: corollary of the new technologies' boom. Jean Baudrillard deals with the universe of virtuality,the consequences of which are not so virtua l...


CLAUDE THIBAUT:

From your point of view, what potential do the new technologies offer?

JEAN BAUDRILLARD:

I don't know much about this subject. I haven't gone beyond the fax and the automatic answering machine. I have a very hard time getting down to work on the screen because all I see there is a text in the form of an image which I have a hard time entering. With my typewriter, the text is at a distance; it is visible and I can work with it. With the screen, it's different; one has to be inside; it is possible to play with it but only if one is on the other side, and immerses oneself in it. That scares me a little, and Cyberspace is not of great use to me personally.

CLAUDE THIBAUT:

In what domains can these new technologies be used: communication, education, simulation? Are they likely to modify the attitudes and behavior of those who use them?

JEAN BAUDRILLARD: I think that it will no doubt explode in all directions, because this is a sprawling medium, and it will grow in all of the domains. But do the ends remain the same; that is doubtless the main problem. Let’s take pedagogy for example: doesn't information kill education? I have friends who are experiencing this in the domain of writing, and for my part I find that their behavior changes in a way. The possibility of indefinitely adjusting the correct version creates a sort of fantasy of perfection of the text which gives the latter another allure, another construction than those which their earlier writing possessed. The result of this quest for perfection remains problematic. We have the impression that the machine operated beyond the ends of the writing.


CLAUDE THIBAUT:

Is there a distortion of the personality?

JEAN BAUDRILLARD: Perhaps there is a distortion, not necessarily one that will consume one's personality. It is possible that the machine can metabolize the mind.