No. 1 - "Simulations" p. 1-13 Reflection

first known demonstration of abstract thought

The earliest known instance of consciously created art was made by a homo Erectus around 500,000  years ago and is a rough zig-zag pattern scratched into the side of a seashell - the first conscious art was a pattern. We (evolutionary ancestry to humans "we") did patterns for a while, but eventually got interested in replicating what we saw every day, such as the animals we hunted. Those images became more important to us, possibly becoming manifestation methods for a successful hunt, and eventually we started to represent things that we didn't see at all, such as gods and other symbolic beings. 

    

From what I think I understood in Baudrillard's Simulations, at one point we expanded our use of representing and simulating things enough that the potential within the concept of simulation itself became our obsession, not the thing we were representing. When the order of the simulation and the simulated is changed, there becomes not only more potential for what can be created, but more potential for obsession, as well. The hyperreal is addictive because, when considering reality's "intended" involvement with the simulation (not purely fictive art, that's another topic), it repackages what would otherwise be difficult to absorb, or is just sensational enough to keep our attention both locked in and spinning. Simulation=stimulation. 

a simulacrum map of a hypo-hyperreal simulated world

Hyperrealism is what is happening when you realize the hyper-hypo-focus you have on your phone's UI microcosm of content - the UI becomes more spacious and real than the hand that's hitting the screen and making pixels rearrange their colors. The moment you look up from the screen, when your sensory perception recalculates its own reality, is the same as walking out of Disneyland and back into the parking lot. 

For the dangers of hyperrealism, an example with tangible steps is sensationalist, soundbite news that creates hyperized bits of information (because it is more immediately engaging than a thorough news source could provide) override reality, making this method of broadcast a very powerful tool for information alteration and reality control.