Disturbed Realities
Where we are now, at the advent of the Permaweird, is the beginning of the Ballardian banality phase of the impact of the internet. A world of untamed but civilized horrors, capable of slow-cooking us into a sort of digital somnolence the way the protagonists of Ballard’s own stories are in a state of being slow-cooked by extrapolated late-industri
... See moreVenkatesh Rao • Disturbed Realities
Including, most recently, post-internet, the reality expansion that has been wreaking havoc on the human psyche at an accelerating rate ever since the first pioneers sent a message across the internet in 1969, and which entered its late phase around 2016.
Forget the ancients. Can you put yourself in your own 2015 headspace?
Venkatesh Rao • Disturbed Realities
This reminds me of the concept of “the writers” writing reality and one-upping themselves over and over again, especially going into COVID and beyond.