Reality Drift: Optimization and the Texture of Contemporary Experience

Reality Drift names a condition that extends beyond hyperreality (Baudrillard), alienation (Marx), or context collapse (Meyrowitz): the pervasive hollowing of lived experience under algorithmic, economic, and cultural optimization. Unlike these adjacent concepts, Reality Drift foregrounds the cascading interplay of optimization, curation, and cognitive distortion, making it a systemic rather than symbolic diagnosis. This paper introduces Reality Drift as the umbrella framework of the project, linking it to the Drift Equation and the Meaning Equation. It explores how experiences feel increasingly staged, flattened, or unreal as coherence (polish, performance, algorithmic smoothness) outpaces context (depth, continuity, authenticity). Part of the Reality Drift framework (2023–2026) by A. Jacobs.