A collection of transcript-based explainers exploring the core concepts of the Reality Drift framework. These transcripts were developed from long-form discussions examining how optimization, abstraction, AI systems, institutional structures, and modern information environments reshape human cognition, meaning, and reality perception. Topics include Reality Drift, Cognitive Drift, Co-Cognition, Cognitive Debt, Constraint Collapse, Optimization Traps, Filter Fatigue, Semantic Fidelity, Synthetic Realness, Recursive Compression, and Institutional Drift. Contents: • AI-Mediated Cognition• How AI Creates Cognitive Debt• How Institutions Lose Contact With Reality• The Age of Drift• Why Everything Feels Synthetic Now• Why Optimization Makes Everything Feel Broken Together these documents provide an accessible introduction to the structural patterns connecting modern institutions, artificial intelligence, information systems, and human cognition.
A.T.J.M. Jacobs (Wed,) studied this question.