In the *Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Supplemental, Pocket-Sized Edition, Mostly Updated)*, Cultural Seepage is described as:
> Definition: Cultural Seepage (n.) The slow, inexplicable process by which an idea, phrase, or product seeps through the membranes of society, until everyone sort of knows about it, but no one remembers how or why.
It is neither a science nor an art. It is, at best, **a leak**.
# Key Indicators
- **Appears in conversations without context** e.g., “It’s giving the main character energy”.
- **Ends up in someone’s LinkedIn headline** If a phrase makes it from a TikTok trend into a management consultant’s CV, cultural seepage has occurred at terminal velocity.
- **Becomes a feature in apps no one asked for** Once an idea seeps far enough, it is guaranteed to become a button in a software update that makes the app worse.
- **Slides into PowerPoint** When a concept makes it onto a badly formatted slide with Comic Sans and stock images of people high-fiving, it's officially seeped.
See also Criteria for Widely-Used Status.
# How It Works 1. Someone clever, weird, or chronically sleep-deprived says something interesting. 2. A slightly cooler person repeats it, ironically. 3. A brand notices. 4. It gets monetised, misinterpreted, made into a podcast, and eventually placed on a hoodie. 5. It is now **part of culture**, whether culture likes it or not.
# Commonly Seeped Terms - Disruption: originally a technical term, now used to justify anything from new apps to poor planning. - Hack: once noble, now applied to toast. - Vibe: formerly a feeling, now a business model.
# In Summary Cultural Seepage is how things go from “Wait, what?” to “Oh yeah, that” to “Please stop saying that.”
It is the galaxy’s most reliable method of ensuring that nothing stays cool, mysterious, or meaningful for long—and that every strange and beautiful idea eventually winds up printed on a mug.
# See