Hyperobject is Timothy Morton's word for things so spread out in time and space that you can't see them whole, like global warming or the carbon cycle. I use it for the planet and the Anthropocene, with some misgivings.
How the word moved
In October 2025 Morton came in under the Expanse, the scales that outrun perception. In November 2025 I laid out his five characteristics and grumbled about the hypermarketing. By January 2026 I'd bent the idea into my own hyperproblem.
In my words
"That’s quite the hypermarketing for hyperobjects, and I worry that we have gone way overboard, but there’s something useful here for sure."
from Bhumics: PAPE, Part 3, 6 Nov 2025
Related
- Inherited from Timothy Morton - it's his concept.
- Related Hyperproblem - my version, a hyperobject recast as a problem.
- Related Planetary Sensorium - computation is what makes hyperobjects graspable at all.
- Related Expanse - both are about scales beyond perception.