Epistemic Collapse and the Age of Simulation. Deconstructing the Historical Narrative in the Digital Era

This transformation poses a profound challenge for the philosophy of history. The rise of generative AI, deepfakes, and decentralized digital archives destabilizes the very categories of fact, interpretation, and representation. The result is a state of epistemic collapse a condition in which the boundaries between reality and simulation, authenticity and fabrication, truth and virality become increasingly blurred. At the same time, the digital age invites a rethinking of memory and identity. If the twentieth century positioned the historian as the central mediator between the past and society, the twenty-first century shifts this role toward distributed collectives of users, algorithms, and media platforms. Historical consciousness becomes less about continuity and verification, and more about fragmentation, circulation, and affective impact. The aim of this article is to examine how digital technologies are reshaping historical narrative and to propose a framework for understanding history as a polyphonic and recursive environment, where memory, identity, and meaning are continuously constructed and renegotiated.