The Temporal Fishbowl
The temporal fishbowl is the Crary volume's most direct engagement with You On AI. Segal's original metaphor was spatial and conceptual: the set of assumptions so familiar the inhabitant has stopped noticing them. Crary's contribution is the recognition that fishbowls are also temporal. The regime of time within which a culture operates — its assumptions about what time is for, how it should be divided, what constitutes productive use and what constitutes waste — is itself a fishbowl, and the most difficult one to see from inside. The temporal fishbowl does not merely shape how time is used. It shapes what time feels like, what temporal experiences are available, what temporal possibilities can even be imagined.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The water in the temporal fishbowl is the assumption that speed is a value — not merely a practical advantage but a quality that makes a process better in a