vim ~/.config/thefuture.rc

we talk often about the k-shaped economy, usually as shorthand for the widening chasm beneath the middle class. but i hear a strange alternate version of this from silicon valley friends who have enough wealth to retire for several lifetimes. work has lost its meaning for them. they either keep pursuing a main quest they have already finished or collapse into self-pity. i know- dry your tears with hundreds, womp womp.

but there is something real underneath the absurdity. we no longer seem able to come to the table, agree on shared ground realities, or even disagree within a tacit framework. this does not mean anyone is obligated to sit down with people whose views they find abhorrent. there are plenty of people i have no interest in having dinner with. but what does it mean for a world when we are no longer even interested in advancing positions?

the subtle nihilism of instagram reels and twitter has seeped into ordinary discourse. it is baffling to walk around normally while what are essentially 24/7 psyops are knowingly beamed into my feed, and, i assume, everyone else’s. it is profoundly sobering to watch my 82-year-old chinese grandfather, who cannot operate a physical keyboard nor understand written english, hold a strong opinion on kamala harris’s border policy.

where can we go from here, when technologies that would take sociologists decades to study are being deployed every month? they march relentlessly forward, though toward what, we do not yet know.

i am deeply affected by this and have few outlets for expression. that feeling everyone has that the internet is full of slop? it is statistically true. the lull between print media and the web-era debut of the new york times represented a strange formative period in history, when information, whether brash, off-color, or silly, still felt at least somewhat authentic.

i’m reminded of that old line about russia, written by nineteenth century poet nikolai gogol: where are you hurtling to? give me answer. no answer comes.