The article examines the genesis of the concept of novelty and argues that modern difficulties in defining and identifying the new are a symptom of a semantic crisis, which is based on the loss of strategic normativity of novelty in modern culture. Three historical-semantic models of novelty are identified and analyzed: cyclical (characteristic of prehistoric societies), invented (peculiar to the modern era), and routine (reflecting modern trends). In the cyclical model, novelty and the ways of representing time were subject to strict control, and the future was interpreted through ritualized myth. The invented novelty model, which combined two perspectives on the origin of novelty — reproduction and combination — affirmed the value of rationally constructing the future. The routine model of novelty is characterized, on the one hand, by the algorithmization of the generation of the new, on the other hand, by the normativization of novelty in all spheres of modern man’s activity. The paper demonstrates how, in the context of digital culture, there is a transformation in the ways of identifying the new through discretization, combinatorics, and externalization of psycho-social existence in “aesthetically charged environments.” Particular attention is paid to the analysis of algorithmic forecasting which, unlike statistical prognostics, does not so much predict as shape the future. The research shows that the semantic crisis of novelty reflects fundamental changes in the temporality of contemporary culture and requires rethinking the role of novelty in the digital age.