Yesterday’s research trip to Wellcome Library turned into something I hadn’t planned. I’d gone to explore their digital health archives for Project Mirror background material, but ended up in the kind of conversation that shifts how you think about your own work.
A neuropsychologist studying identity disorders recognised the book I was reading about algorithmic bias. We started discussing whether digital personas create genuine dissociation or just make existing performance more visible. She’d been tracking patients who report feeling disconnected from their social media selves, which mirrors exactly what my protagonist experiences when her aesthetic software starts glitching.
Later, over terrible coffee in the reading room, a medical historian explained how cosmetic procedures have always been about conforming to algorithmic thinking, long before actual algorithms existed. Victorian beauty standards were essentially code that women had to debug themselves against.
These weren’t networking conversations or professional small talk. Just people genuinely curious about how technology reshapes identity. The kind of exchange that makes you realise your fictional world isn’t speculative at all.
Left with three new reading recommendations and the uncomfortable realisation that Project Mirror might be documenting present reality rather than imagining future dystopia.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
