Part of the Reality Drift framework (2023–2026) by A. Jacobs.
Reality Drift is a systems-level condition in which institutions, technologies, and cultural environments continue to function while gradually losing alignment with real-world feedback and lived experience.
It emerges when optimization pressures and mediation layers intensify, preserving coherence and performance metrics while weakening contextual grounding. Systems remain operational, but their connection to underlying reality becomes progressively indirect.
Reality Drift describes the systemic condition produced when the Drift Principle intensifies within complex environments.
As environmental entropy grows faster than the capacity of systems to compress and stabilize meaning, representations begin to lose fidelity. Institutions and platforms continue operating, but alignment with real-world conditions gradually weakens.
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