Feels Like a Simulation

Does believing you're the last sane person on Earth make you crazy?

You've felt it. That vertigo when you say something obviously true and the room looks at you like you're the one who's lost it.

Feels Like a Simulation gives that feeling a framework. Robert Armstrong, author of Manipulation Machine, argues that institutional capture follows a pattern:

• Layer One is a genuine good idea.
• Layer Two is the business model that grows around it.
• Layer Three is the battleground - where the tools built to defend the business model are deployed to shield it from evaluation or analysis, hiding behind the original good intention.

Through thirteen "Breakdowns" that apply the framework to real headlines as they happen, and a cast of characters who trace the three stages of recognition - the Believer, the Knower, the Wise - this book puts language to an experience millions have had but couldn't name.

This isn't a book about any single issue. It's the mechanism underneath all of them.

If you've ever wondered whether seeing clearly is the same thing as losing your mind - this book is the answer.