This coincidence – real-world replicating video games, replicating real-life – caused me to think of French cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, well-known for his theory of “hyperreality”, a condition where the consciousness is unable to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced societies. As I would quickly find, this was one of those rare occurrences where obscure French theory serves as a perfect map for experience.
By 2010, Hall had transformed the 200-ft deep silo into a 15-story luxury bolthole, where a community of up to 75 individuals could weather five years inside the sealed, self-sufficient bunker during a doomsday event. When the event passed, residents expected to be able to re-emerge into the post-apocalyptic world (or what preppers colloquially refer to as the PAW) to rebuild.
In the meantime, residents would be carrying on their lives mostly as they did before the disaster. As we zipped down 15 stories in the lift, Hall toured me around the grocery store, cinema, bar, and shooting range inside the bunker, as well as a climbing wall, a game room, library, gym, education centre, pet park, hospital, and armoury. At one point, he opened a door and flipped a light switch to illuminate a 50,000-gallon indoor swimming pool flanked by a rock waterfall, lounge chairs, and a picnic table.
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