Foreverism

American philosopher Grafton Tanner introduces the idea of foreverizing, a practice that runs through the franchise-driven film industry, online file storage, and the synthetic copying of human voices. Foreverizing means bringing back things that have decayed, broken, or vanished so they remain part of the present. It involves reanimating those things, shielding them from time and the elements, and dulling the sense of longing that loss leaves behind.

Foreverizing offers protection against instability, but it does not always succeed. What is promised to endure often fails to, while what has been thrown away may persist in unsettling ways.

Tanner builds a theory of an anti-nostalgic outlook that offers constant growth without change and existence without loss. Drawing on current concerns such as the environmental toll of data storage and the rise of reboot culture, he traces what a society that resists nostalgia looks like and identifies the tools it uses to eliminate nostalgia.