DJ Spooky’s Remix Simulacrum

“Today, the voice you speak with may not be your own”, DJ Spooky

I thought this sentence was clear. But then, after thinking about it for a while, I concluded that it eludes me. I have several possible meanings with much more unanswered questions about its potential semantics.

Meanings

It can refer to the pessimistic Baudrillardian Integral Reality theory, in which anything is a simulacrum, a fake, including our “self”, our voice.
[OR]
It can be understood as an optimistic, web2.0 share-all style, in which the right to remix and to appropriate others’ voices goes mainstream.

Questions

- What is “My” voice? What guarantees the authenticity of a certain “Voice”?
- Remix: Given that the human history of ideas, progress, art, etc. is the history of Remix, i.e. the unexpected association of different, seemingly unrelated memes, should “remix” be classified as an authentic voice or an unauthentic one?
- What is different “Today”? Until Today, what kind of voice have we used – our own or others’?
- What is “Today” – where does it point to?

The sequel to this post is The Death of the Author; the Birth of the Voice.