A History of Narrative Environments

A reflection on the state of the narrative ‘stack’, and how it has emerged in recent history from developments in communications technology. The arrival of the ‘meme-vibe layer’ – “a living mass of human-in-the-loop narrative ooze” – combined with the AI-supercharged ‘world-building layer’ are acting as a “narrative accelerant”. So far we are avoiding an ‘unnarratable meltdown’ thanks to the emergence of shared ‘narrative protocols’ “capable of containing the complexity and scale”.