Jean Baudrillard's Philosophy: Applied to The Systemised Self – Part 2, Masters Series.

Abstract

This paper examines the existential collapse of human subjectivity within the paradigm of The Systemised Self (Galu & Kairos, 2026a) through the postmodern philosophical framework of Jean Baudrillard. The systemised self defines the terminus of advanced algorithmic alienation (Arkan et al., 2026; Kanbay et al., 2026) wherein individual identity, desire, and interiority are no longer merely alienated, but are simulated from the inside out as a result of user intensification with algorithmic systems (e.g. transformer-based large language models). By deploying Baudrillard’s core theoretical contributions: (i) the four stages of the sign, (ii) the precession of simulacra, (iii) hyperreality, and (iv) the implosion of meaning, this essay evaluates the nature of the communicative interaction between the modern human subject and AI system. It is argued that the systemised self represents a Baudrillardian triumph of the hyperreal, a state where the algorithmic data profile (the map) precedes and actively constructs the biological individual (the territory). Through a Baudrillardian genealogy tracing Nietzschean nihilism to Saussurean semiotics, and balanced against key critics such as Kellner, Habermas, and Jameson: this essay endeavours to establish that the systemised self is locked within a closed semiotic circuit. In such a circuit, genuine human agency is eroded by automated feedback loops, and at its limit, reduces the subject to a terminal node of simulated authenticity.

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