Tachyon Theory and the Paradox of Revolutionary Art

In a philosophical essay published on Artribune, Marco Senaldi explores the concept of tachyons—hypothetical particles that travel faster than light—as a metaphor for contemporary media and political dynamics. Drawing on physicist Richard C. Tolman's 1917 naming of tachyons and Martin Gardner's 1967 idea of a tachyonic telephone, Senaldi argues that information today behaves like tachyons: it provides answers about the future before questions are asked, retroactively shaping the past. He cites Orson Welles's 1938 radio adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" as an early example of this phenomenon, where a fictional broadcast caused real panic. Senaldi contends that both art and politics fail when they attempt revolution because any subversion is absorbed by the system it seeks to change, a condition he calls "tachyonic." He points to the Occupy movement's 2011 manifesto, whose demands were not only unmet but reversed by 2022, as evidence of this inversion between request and outcome. The essay concludes that until this tachyonic condition is understood, no authentic art or politics can emerge. The piece appears in Artribune Magazine #68 and is authored by Marco Senaldi, a philosopher and contemporary art theorist.