Mimetic Hauntology

Mimetic Hauntology argues that tech creators must break free from imitating past figures and companies before they can imagine something new. The author says Steve Jobs spoke in two interviews about wearable face-mounted displays and conversing with the essence of historical figures such as Einstein, and that LLMs now make the second possible. The essay describes "pattern matching" among consumer app companies after Snapchat's breakout, where companies and investors benchmarked against the Snap story, at the cost of progress, compelling ideas and diversity. It concludes that finding newness is hard work and that each generation will have new ghosts to escape.