Reality Drift Visual Frameworks
A collection of visual frameworks developed as part of the Reality Drift project between 2023 and 2026. These diagrams map recurring cognitive and systemic failure patterns in modern optimized environments.
Core Drift Mechanics
The Cognitive Drift Cycle
How algorithmic curation, compression, and dependency reinforce one another.
Continuation Becomes Cheaper Than Correction
Why modern systems fail by continuing automatically instead of stopping to correct errors.
The Constraint Axioms
Four conditions that allow systems to remain functional while drifting away from reality.
Second-Order Constraint Collapse
Why well-intentioned optimization produces systems that are technically correct but experientially hollow.
The Reality Drift Engine
How filter fatigue, optimization, and synthetic realness form a self-reinforcing system.
The Drift Principle (Recursive Compression)
How reality degrades into representation, imitation, and drift as compression compounds and fidelity thins.
The Drift Principle (Definition)
As recursive compression increases and fidelity thins, drift escapes.
Perceptual & Cognitive Effects
Filter Fatigue Loop
Why information overload leads to narrowing focus and cognitive exhaustion.
Filter Fatigue Stack
Why constant evaluation and sorting exhaust cognition beneath information overload.
Performativity Drift
How modern life shifts from lived experience to managed visibility.
Cognitive Compression Styles
How different minds fail differently under high-noise, optimized systems.
Why Does Everything Sound the Same Online?
How optimization flattens language through prediction, smoothing, and repetition.
Why Does Nothing Feel Real?
Drift as accumulated error when systems stop learning from feedback.
Optimization & System Dynamics
The UX Optimization Trap
How engagement metrics accelerate simplification faster than meaning can form.
The Optimization Trap Matrix
When increasing effort produces less meaning instead of more.
Meaning & Fidelity & Compression
The Semantic Fidelity Compass
Distinguishing coherence, faithfulness, accuracy, and core intent.
How Meaning Gets Lost
Semantic fidelity collapse as experience is compressed into signals and outputs.
The Meaning Equation
Why meaning emerges from context and fidelity, and collapses under drift.
The Drift Map
A diagnostic map of stability, integration, drift, and collapse under compression and entropy.
![View image]](https://offbrandguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/drift-map-entropy-compression-zones.png){kind=link}
The Reality Drift Spectrum
A continuum for situating modern experiences from authentic human interaction to fully artificial simulation.
The Synthetic Realness Framework
Distinguishing genuine, performative, synthetic, and simulated experiences by intent and origin.
The Synthetic Realness Gradient
A four-stage progression from lived texture to algorithmic hyper-clarity.
Extended Material:
- Reality Drift Definition
- Canonical Glossary
- Working Paper Archive
- Long-form Reader Edition
- Mechanics & Taxonomy
Note: These visual frameworks are part of the Reality Drift project and are provided here as reference artifacts. Expanded analysis appears elsewhere.