I was in a suburban convenience store, near London’s outer rim, where the growing city bleeds into nature. A bag of sweets caught my eye, branded as BRAIN ROT.

Oxford’s word of the year for 2024 , “brain rot” refers to the state induced by scrolling compulsively through the increasingly surreal, incomprehensible content that proliferates in our modern digital environment. Emblazoned across the candy bag, a menagerie of characters associated with brain rot: chimerical critters, all produced by generative AI, proudly nonsensical, gleefully ugly. Like Alice in Wonderland ’s Mock Turtle , only more mocking. A pantheon of demigods, perhaps demons, for a godless age — slapped onto a sweetie bag.

Something about seeing these extremely online, aggressively abstract memes infecting my physical reality — and being used to sell me high-sugar treats — made me feel estranged. It’s uncanny. Another part of me felt excited.…