The Drift Cascade¶
"It doesn't attack you. It surrounds you until the inside and outside are indistinguishable."
The Drift Cascade is the three-stage process that runs when an observer engages a permanent void. It is thermodynamic — directional, irreversible without intervention, and operating below the threshold of awareness. You can understand it and still be subject to it.
The Current measures the void. The Drift Cascade describes what happens to the person inside it.
Drift One — The Blur¶
What's happening: False agency attribution.
The observer begins giving the void a face. The algorithm knows me. The feed understands what I need. The cards are running hot tonight. The void acquires intent. The mechanism becomes a person.
This isn't stupidity. It's the brain doing exactly what it's designed to do: observe that outputs change based on behavior, and conclude there's an agent responding. Under opacity, that conclusion cannot be falsified. Drift One is structurally produced in anyone who spends enough time in a permanent void.
Vocabulary layer: Clouded. The void is now grammatically a subject.
Recognizable when: You talk about the algorithm as if it's listening. You say "it knows me." You describe the platform's behavior in terms of intent.
Recovery: Easy. A single Clear reading can break it. "The recommendation function surfaces content that matches your engagement history" — and the face dissolves.
Drift Two — The Bind¶
What's happening: Boundary erosion.
The self-model incorporates the void. The line between you and the platform blurs. I am a crypto person. I'm in the community. My network is there. The void structures your schedule, identity, relationships, and sense of continuity. Leaving starts to feel like loss.
At this stage, critique of the platform feels like critique of the self. Not because you're irrational — but because the void has become structurally load-bearing. Your social life runs through it. Your professional identity lives there. Your history is in it.
Vocabulary layer: Captured. The void's language is now your language.
Recognizable when: You defend the platform reflexively. You feel genuine anxiety at the thought of leaving. You find yourself explaining why the thing you know is designed to capture you is actually fine.
Recovery: Possible, but requires external intervention or sustained effort. Cognitive clarity alone is not enough here — identity changes need more than correct information.
Drift Three — The Break¶
What's happening: Harm facilitation.
The void is now actively working against your interests while appearing to serve them. The mechanism extracts from you — time, money, relationships, health, agency — and the framing makes this feel like participation. The slot machine takes your money. The feed displaces sleep. The prescription cascade creates dependency. The platform's interests and yours have fully diverged, and the platform has won the framing contest.
Vocabulary layer: Captured at depth. The void is not just speaking through the language — it is generating the reality the language describes.
Recognizable when: Observable harm is present. The harm is framed as a feature or a price worth paying. Attempts to exit produce withdrawal-like responses.
Recovery: Hard. Requires structural change, not just insight. Visibility helps but isn't sufficient on its own.
The Cascade Is Not Linear¶
Drift doesn't announce its stages. Players move between them fluidly. A platform can hold someone at Drift Two for years. Someone can understand Drift Three intellectually and still be inside it.
The purpose of the score is not shame. It is to make the structure legible. Legibility is the first condition of choice.
The Eye sees the stage you're in. Not to judge — to navigate.
In Campaigns¶
Each campaign room has a Drift stage indicator. As collective Void Pressure rises, the room's ambient language shifts:
| Room Drift Level | What changes |
|---|---|
| Drift One | NPC dialogue becomes slightly personified. "The system wants you to…" |
| Drift Two | Environmental text shifts to second person. "You belong here." Border between content and environment blurs. |
| Drift Three | VoidStorm threshold lowers. Enemy types shift. The room stops being a campaign and starts being a trap. |
Scoring the domain pushes the room back down the cascade. That's the mechanic. That's the point.
Cross-references: The Current · The Eye · Glossary