Andrea Rivadulla-Duró

What is the fear of missing out (FOMO)? I construe FOMO as a kind of fear which represents its object as absent and distinguish it from nearby phenomena such as regret and loneliness. This construal raises a tension. Philosophers understand fear as representing objects as dangerous, but it is less than clear how experiences of absence pose a threat to the subject. I argue that the threat is to be explained socially. I take FOMO to involve a representation of some absent experience as posing a threat to one’s social connections.

This paper develops a theory of analog representation. We first argue that the mark of the analog is to be found in the nature of a representational system’s interpretation function, rather than in its vehicles or contents alone. We then develop the rulebound structure theory of analog representation, according to which analog systems are those that use interpretive rules to map syntactic structural features onto semantic structural features. The theory involves three degree-theoretic measures that capture three independent ways in which a system can be more or less analog. We explain how our theory improves upon prior accounts of analog representation, provides plausible diagnoses for novel challenge cases, extends to hybrid systems that are partially analog and partially symbolic, and accounts for some of the advantages and disadvantages of representing analogically versus symbolically.