Capitalism, Crackheads, and Quantum Mechanics - What I Consumed This Week

I’ve been on a subconscious hunt for answers about how we experience reality—from psychedelia to physics to propaganda.

Curtis and Gribbin both toy with how systems—be they political or physical—challenge our sense of autonomy, whereas Uketsu's Hidden Pictures and Gribbin's rundown of popular interpretations of quantum mechanics will both make you question what’s “really” happening versus what we see. (And Thomas De Quincy - some classics aren't worth reading is my conclusion)

This post is more of a quick rundown of everything I've consumed this week. Let’s call this the first weekly media dump. A quick assortment of the various bits and bobs I've consumed over this last week (Clearly it has not been a very busy one). No promises that this will be a regular thing—but if you’ve ever wanted to glimpse the inside of a week where Adam Curtis, quantum physics, and crackhead memoirs collide, well, buckle up. I’ll link out to longer pieces covering my thoughts in more detail (if they exist, Adam Curtis - I'm looking at you), but here’s a buffet of brainworms for you to consume in the meantime:

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) + Can’t Get You Out of My Head (2021) - Documentaries by Adam Curtis

Systems thinking. Cybernetic dreams. The lies of Neoliberalism.

Curtis' documentaries feel like visual experimental jazz, cutting between old interviews, eerie stock footage, and voiceovers that sound like bedtime stories for nihilists. What stuck with me? The idea that our obsession with systems—natural, technological, economic—isn’t actually making us freer. It’s just disguising power in new costumes and keeping us feeling helpless and complacent.

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Confessions of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincey

Hidden Pictures by Uketsu

Six Impossible Things by John Gribbin

Novocaine (2025)