💊 No Active Ingredients Whatsoever

A wide-ranging reflection on the strange theatre of the placebo — how it works because of what we project onto it. Placebos aren't lies, Rob Horning suggests, but collaborative fictions: their magic lies in context, ritual and the choreography of care. He goes further — what if art, advertising, even AI are similarly placebo-like? The point isn't trickery but our willingness to believe with others. Beautiful, and also dangerous: without a shared container, belief can curdle into delusion.