New. It's always new. It's got to be new. And that being the case, I figured that at this point it would be fitting to look in the opposite direction, toward the old. So one association led to another, and it made sense to me that I check out the various references to the cocktail party metaphor in the Boidem (no "earlier" or "later" here as well), but I also remembered that ideas similar to the ones I've been trying to get an at least somewhat coherent hold on show up in Douglas Rushkoff's Present Shock, and I started checking that out as well. So there I am, rereading the first chapter of the book, and then realizing that I've reread it in its entirety, identifying especially with a passage in the third chapter:

Stored time is more like a pond than a stream. It remains still long enough to promote life and grow cultures within it. A pond may be stagnant and unsuitable for drinking, but that only attests to its ability to support a living ecosystem within itself. A stream, on the other hand, is defined by its constant movement. It is never still. This doesn't mean it lacks power. Over time, its flow can cut a path through solid rock. But it's a hard place for cultures to develop. The pond creates change within itself by staying still. The stream creates change beyond itself by remaining in motion. If we think of them as media, the pond contains its content, while the stream uses the earth around itself as its content.