Declutch: Disengaging from the Zygote of Misinterpretation in the Information Age


Declutch: Disengaging from the Zygote of Misinterpretation in the Information Age

By Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy

“Amidst tons and tons of information now we need to declutch—
separate informations before formulating a bizarre zygote of misinterpretation!”

— Farheen, Declutch (2025)

Introduction

We are submerged in a society that venerates information not as knowledge, but as a commodified torrent. The modern self is not only overinformed but is drenched in data streams that refuse to coagulate into meaning. In such a context, the act of "declutching"—a term I coin poetically to signal epistemic disengagement—becomes not a withdrawal from knowledge, but a defensive maneuver against information capitalism.

This hybrid essay explores how poetic insight can serve as a form of critique and self-preservation in the digital age. Using Declutch as an entry point, I engage with thinkers such as Baudrillard, Zuboff, Postman, and Virilio to explore how truth is eroded and epistemological agency is threatened in the age of digital hyperproduction.

Information Capitalism and the Politics of Truth

“In this information age we are living in an information society upholding information capitalism strongly—”

The repetition here is deliberate—an echo of the recursive, redundant nature of the digital media sphere. Shoshana Zuboff (2019) frames this as surveillance capitalism, wherein human experience becomes raw material for data extraction and behavioral prediction. The individual is no longer just a subject of knowledge but a resource to be mined.

This condition mirrors Baudrillard’s (1994) argument that we have moved from a society of production to a society of simulation, where the signifier detaches from any stable referent. Truth, in such a system, becomes an artifact among many perspectives, all equally flattened by algorithmic presentation.

Zygotes of Misinterpretation

“Separate informations before formulating a bizarre zygote of misinterpretation!”

This metaphor—biological yet digital—suggests that misinformation is not merely random error but a synthetic outcome, born from undisciplined fusion. In biological terms, a zygote is the origin of life; in the digital sphere, malformed zygotes birth half-truths, conspiracy theories, and viral propaganda.

Here, Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) concept of “assemblage” is relevant: meanings are not fixed, but formed through ad hoc linkages between disparate elements. The poem warns of chaotic assemblages leading not to creative thought, but to epistemic monstrosities.

The Aesthetics of Disappearance

“We are living in a dream of the waves of information—baseless, meaningless, banal—”

Paul Virilio (1997) argued that technology creates an aesthetics of disappearance—where things become hyper-visible yet incomprehensible. In the accelerated information ecosystem, the abundance of representation results in cognitive erosion. The more we see, the less we understand.

Postman (1985) foresaw this when he lamented the rise of entertainment as a mode of knowledge delivery. In this dreamlike wave of stimuli, information becomes ambient noise. Meaning must be recovered through active disengagement, not passive absorption.

Declutching as Ethical Resistance

“Wow!”

This sarcastic interjection breaks the poem’s rhythm—like a sudden pause in a machine. It captures the absurdity of our situation: we are expected to be amazed, informed, and reactive at all times. But what happens if we declutch?

To "declutch" is to interrupt the automated system—to remove oneself from frictionless flows of information and reclaim interpretative agency. Michel Foucault (1980) described truth not as absolute but as constructed within regimes of power. Declutching is a refusal to be governed by these regimes unconsciously.

Conclusion: Incumbent Inoculations?

“Incumbent inoculations!”

The poem ends on a cryptic note. Are we being vaccinated against truth? Against dissent? The inoculation metaphor may suggest that even critical thinking is being commodified, prepackaged as TED Talks or social media rants—safe, containable, and ultimately co-opted.

In this landscape, poetry becomes a rare space where language resists automation. It is not designed for virality but for rupture. And in rupture, there is hope.

References

  • Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S. F. Glaser, Trans.). University of Michigan Press.

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.

  • Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Pantheon Books.

  • Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Viking.

  • Virilio, P. (1997). The Information Bomb. Verso.

  • Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs.

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