The Speed Delusion: A Defense of Lingering

"We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”— Jean Baudrillard

The Split Between Bits and Atoms

Peter Thiel once said we were promised flying cars, but we got 140 characters. What he means is this:

J. M. W. Turner - Rain, Steam and Speed Railway1844

Digital life has accelerated. Physical life has stalled.

We’ve made huge advances in computing and information. But the infrastructure we live in— the material world (cities, transit)—feels kind of stuck. This divergence is symbolic of a deeper issue: we’re optimizing for speed, not meaning.

"Technology is miraculous... But when it only serves to speed up the processes we already have, it’s not really progress."— Peter Thiel

Umberto Boccioni – The City Rises (1910

Speed Flattens Experience

Efficiency is a virtue—until it hollows things out. Nicholas Carr, in The Shallows, argues the internet is rewiring us to scroll, skim, click, and move on. We scroll more, think less. The algorithms are all about speed and volume, not depth.

“The Net is making us smarter... but it’s also making us shallower.”— Nicholas Carr

Baudrillard called this the collapse of meaning. We have infinite information, but few real experiences. We’re moving faster, but becoming less human in the process.

“Speed cuts to the chase; it eliminates the adventure of discovery.”— Jean Baudrillard

Henri Edmond Cross – The Evening Air (1893

The Need for Lingering

Byung-Chul Han’s The Scent of Time reads like a eulogy for slowness. He argues modern life has lost its ability to linger—to reflect, to be still, to dwell in time rather than outrun it.

“A life that lingers, that refuses to be hurried... is becoming increasingly rare.”

The irony is real: We can do more than ever, faster than ever—and yet feel emptier than ever.

The Romantic Counterpoint

This isn’t new. The Industrial Revolution brought its own type of speed—steam, factories. And the Romantics pushed back. We’re in a similar time now.  As tech accelerates, meaning evaporates. The question is whether we let speed define us—or find a rhythm that resists it.

The Blue Flower isn’t about going backward. It’s about stillness - making room for lingering.