<narcissistic rhapsody>--"The Other" is like "Matrix"

Lacan's concept of psychoanalysis is very obscure and difficult to understand, and his theories were even rejected by traditional psychoanalytic schools. Therefore, during my more than 20 years of contact with psychoanalytic theory, I never encountered him. Only in the last year have I really started to study him, and I have also written a few articles about my thoughts after reading Lacan.

I dare not say that I really understand his theories, especially those topological three-dimensional diagrams that are like cloth, turned over and folded, and then sewn together; but many of his concepts are very inspiring for my thinking, and I really want to To describe my understanding more clearly to share with you.

Recently, the concept of "metaverse" is very popular. Under the hypnosis of Facebook, many people "mistakenly" think that the metaverse is a virtual world, which recalls a movie "The Matrix" a long time ago. In the film, the human body is kept in the machine, and the brain is connected to a virtual world established by the centralized computer Matrix. Human consciousness thinks that the virtual world is the real self.

In such a scenario, consciousness exists in a pile of code, and all perception operations will be limited by the code. Such a state may sound unreal, but isn't that how our consciousness works in this "real" world we live in?

In Lacan's theory, man's "self-consciousness" runs on what he calls a "signature chain", which is composed of various symbols, symbols and languages imagined and created by human beings. Although it is a chain, it is more like a complex network; these symbols, symbols and languages are constantly connecting, interacting and changing meanings. Our mental and sensory experiences are constantly being transformed into these signifiers in consciousness, allowing us to think and communicate with others. These signifiers are actually very similar to the "code" of a computer. Everyone's brain is like a small computer, running on the "operating system" of the "signature chain" and connecting with others.

The "world" we know is actually constructed on the chain of meanings, which is similar to the way people's consciousness operates on the Matrix in the movie...

However, unlike Matrix, the token chain is a "decentralized" system, and its "code" will be continuously recreated and changed. This process cannot be controlled by individuals (this is why the centralization cannot be an important reason for Facebook or Gugou to dominate the Metaverse).

It's like a giant, self-changing computer program on which our consciousness needs to run. We make "requests" to the system, just like inputting instructions in the command line of a program, and the system outputs the results to us after operation. We are forced to enter this system after birth, so that our physical and psychological "needs" can be transformed into "requirements" for the system to be satisfied; all our sensory experiences, even psychological feelings, need to be "translated" " becomes a "signature" so that we can communicate with others; in addition to using it to establish our cognition of the real world, we also use it as a material for constructing the self, so the self must be shaped and limited by this system. This whole system of continuous accumulation and change is close to what Lacan calls the "big Other."

Although I said that the operation of the "big other" and Matrix are very similar, there are still big differences between them, which will be further explained in my subsequent articles. The first thing to understand is that there is no problem with the "meaning chain" itself. It runs as efficiently as code, so humans can quickly develop their current civilization. The danger is that if the operation of the program is regarded as the only "reality", and many messages that are temporarily incompatible with the "program" are deleted, it will gradually become disconnected from the "reality" and enter a "closed" state. System, this really becomes a Matrix!