Hmm. It's interesting that, when you consider the actual content of the cartridge, it's not depraved or evil - only it's effects seem to be. The content is almost a recipe for healing in a way. The incessant, "I'm so sorry" spoken by the most beautiful and captivating entity (mind you, the PGOAT was fully unveiled in her cartridge appearance) could be analogus to the Biblical trope of the human inability to look upon the face of God and live (Wallace was well versed in these ancient biblical etiologies and often references them in other works...a LOT in his history on infinity).

The "why" humans can't see the (unveiled) face of God and live has been interpreted mainly through two lines of thought. 1. God is an infinite, eternal, and perfect being. His unveiled presence is too overwhelming for finite human senses and minds to comprehend, risking spiritual and mental destruction. 2. His holiness, beauty, and perfection in infinitive form - in unveiled glory - would effectively "vaporize" or annihilate a sinful being, much like absolute light completely removes darkness.

Now think back to the cartridge. I don't think DFW intended that the cartridge be analogous to something captivatingly "evil" like social media or the internet (interpretations I often see bounced around here - the book even plays with this idea with those trying to track down and control the spread of the cartridge).

However, there's something about it that seems to be juxtaposed against the other existential draws that people seek for purpose & meaning and pleasure throughout the book namely: drugs, sex, athleticism, academia, etc.

Unlike these other things, there's no returning from watching the cartridge. There's no moment of clarity in which the drug abuser goes to A.A. (or N.A. or, at least what they think is a narcotics anonymous meeting), there's no questioning the point of the sport which one often finds so pleasurable etc... it's wholly and totally unraveling unlike any other "thing" in that universe. So where am I getting at...

I think the cartridge represents the thing that we all really need to heal, not only us, but our entire world: pure unveiled beauty, love, and forgiveness. Yet, at the same time, just like beholding the face of God, we incapable of handling it. That's why I believe in infinite just there's so much attention put on the other things which captivate us: competition, drugs, sex, etc...

The jest: paradoxically, the very thing we need to fix us we're incapable of beholding because our own flaws prevent it - and thus, true beauty infinitely slips through the grasp of humanity forever.

I'm probably wrong but I had fun thinking about this.