Stories by realitydrift

Why AI systems improve while drifting away from reality [pdf]

Why do so many systems feel like they're getting worse at the same time?

Why Systems Optimized for Metrics Eventually Drift from Reality [pdf]

A Reality Alignment Index: Measuring When AI and Systems Lose Meaning [pdf]

Why optimization slowly breaks the systems it improves

Why Modern Systems Keep Functioning After They Stop Making Sense [pdf]

Large Systems Lose the Ability to Correct Themselves

Why Modern Life Feels Unreal: An Information-Theoretic Model of Cognitive Drift

The AI Productivity Paradox Is a Feedback Problem

The Loss of Stop Conditions in Modern Life

Early Signs of Constraint Loss in Product and System Design

Continuous Context Switching Erodes Attention

The Optimization Trap: Why Doing Everything Right Feels Wrong

UX systems now optimize faster than users can make meaning

When Information Accelerates Faster Than Human Compression Capacity

The Drift Principle: why systems get worse even when they're "working"

Life Online Feels Fake Because of Drift: A Theory of Compression and Fidelity