The Bubble: The Dark Side of Technical Imagination

Abstract

We live in a bubble – the bubble of “contemporaneity”. It is often claimed that “everything is cyclical”, as taste and fashion recycle elements from the past, presenting them as “original”. However, this is largely an illusion. Contemporaneity has a distinct starting point: the 1950s. What appears to be a transgenerational community sharing cultural references and cultivating a global collective memory is, in fact, the illusory effect of a «homogeneous, empty time» (Benjamin). In this article, I diagnose the contours of what I call “the Bubble” and the risks it entails, critically examining the role of technical reproducibility in the (mis)formation of memory. I argue that both individual and collective memory are shaped by the economic forces and neoliberal ideology of global capitalism, leading to what Stiegler termed «symbolic misery» – the collective impoverishment and homogenization of taste, alongside the «modulation of affects» (Deleuze). These processes are facilitated by two key mechanisms: the encapsulation of experience via technical means (prosthetic memory) and the restriction of experience through the controlled distribution of cultural objects (e.g., algorithms). Thus, the bubble of contemporaneity emerges not only as a cultural phenomenon but also as an instrument of control and standardization within late capitalism.