Hauntology, Lost Futures and 80s Nostalgia
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a clear introduction to hauntology and lost futures in discussions of Mark Fisher and cyberpunk.
What it is
A video essay explaining hauntology, Mark Fisher's idea of lost futures, and 80s nostalgia. It uses the Fallout games and other media as examples of a retro-futurism that mourns futures that never arrived.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2019 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends vvdcect · 2019-03 · on “The Lost Futures of Mark Fisher”
Do checkout "Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?", It's a concise book that talks about capitalism and its effects on culture and public thought. I haven't read lost futures yet but I found this really good video discussing Mark's idea by Cuck Philosophy called "Hauntology, Lost Futures and 80s Nostalgia" [this video]
Recommends thevardanian · 2020-08 · on “Is Cyberpunk Dead? A Conversation with Bruce Bethke”
One word: Hauntology. Jacques Derrida coined the neologism to describe narratives of the future. Hauntology is the idea that the present is "haunted" by lost futures, and refers to the return of elements of the past that "haunts" the present as a ghost. So imagined futures, instead of exploring new futures, itself becomes a form which is haunted by the exploration of past ideas of the future. This is the whole idea of retro-futurism that we often see these days. Here's a vid that talks about exactly what people here are trying to analyze. [this video]
Recommends futureproofd · 2022-03 · on “Mark Fisher’s “K-punk” and the futures that have never arrived (2018)”
It's good to see the occasional Mark Fisher thread here. On the topic of Hauntology and lost futures, I think this guy does a great job of explaining it through the analogy of the Fallout videogame series: [this video] Analogies through pop-culture is something Mark Fisher also did very well to get his point across, and appeal to a broader audience.
Cites _wire_ · 2026-04 · on “What Is Hypernormalization?”
Hypernormalisation - A. Curtis (2h46m) [LINK] //[a story of how] governments, financiers and technological utopians gave up on trying to shape the complex real world and instead established a simpler fake world for the benefit of multi-national corporations that is kept stable by neoliberal governments. The film was released on 16 October 2016// Curtis' signature style is to propose a thesis and develop it entirely via BBC News video archive segments arranged as an impressionistic, editorial montage. The news segments are bound together by V.O. (or text) narrative, and punctuated by a soundtrack of esoteric pop music to impose a personal perspective and stimulate a gestalt critique. Curtis'