Michael Stevens on the Origin of VSauce and Viral Education-Reaction & Analysis

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Imagine staring at a screen where a deeply slow, highly
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intellectual philosophical debate from eleven years ago is just presented
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to you with the exact same urgency as a panic inducing,
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flashing red video about a global catastrophe, right, and a.
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Video that was uploaded just four hours ago.
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No, less exactly, there is no timeline. I mean, there
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is no past or present. There is just this endless,
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scrolling wall of human curiosity, completely flattened into a single moment.
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It really creates this state of cognitive whiplash. Yeah, you
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are looking at an environment that simply doesn't care when
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a piece of information was created. Yeah, it only cares
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whether that piece of information can hook your tension right now,
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in this precise second.
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And that whiplash is exactly what we are dissecting today.
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So welcome to a completely different kind of deep dive.
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We aren't reading a newly published book, and we aren't
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analyzing a peer reviewed paper in some scientific journal.
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No, we are definitely not.
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Today. Our source material is basically a digital fossil. It's
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a literal snapshot of frozen web page, capturing the metadata,
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the descriptions, and most importantly, the vast, sprawling algorithmic ecosystem
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surrounding one specific video.
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Right and for those of you listening, the video we
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are looking at is Joe Rogan Experience number five twenty
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eight featuring Michael Stevens, who is the creator of the YouTube.
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Channel v Sauce, which is just a massive cultural touchstone.
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And looking at the backdrop you've brought up for our
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visual feed today, I mean it fits the archaeological theme perfectly.
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I thought you'd like that. Yeah, you've got this abstract,
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glowing digital matrix that's slowly resolving into the clunky, nostalgic
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mid twenty tens YouTube airface.
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Oh wow. Yeah, you can even see the classic slightly
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boxy sidebar recommendations popping up on the right side.
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I had to set the mood, you know, because our
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mission here is to really explore this specific digital artifact
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from July thirty, twenty fourteen. We want to unpack what
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this singular frozen web page tells us about the origin
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of V Sauce, the k early frontier of long form podcasting,
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and well the mechanics of how digital media algorithms began
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to actively shape human thought.
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Boit before we jump in, you use the word fossil earlier,
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and I called it an artifact. But a web page
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with a recommendation algorithm attached to it isn't static right
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right now, Like if I dig up a clay pot
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in the desert, it just sits there. It is exactly
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what it was a thousand years ago.
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That's a really crucial distinction. Actually, it's a fossil only
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in the sense that the central video was uploaded on
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a specific date. Okay, but the environment we are analyze it,
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so the sidebar, the recommended videos, the comments, that is
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highly dynamic. It is the absolute definition of living evolving
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time capsule. It keeps changing exactly. The algorithm is constantly
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updating the surrounding ecosystem based on the behavioral data of
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you know, millions of users who click on that central
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video over the course of a decade.
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Okay, let's unpack this because to really understand what the
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algorithm build around this video, we have to understand the
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seed that started it all.
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We have to look at the exact details of this
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specific twenty fourteen upload.
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Yeah, so the video is titled Joe Rogan Experience hashtag
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five twenty eight. Michael Stevens from VSAUS uploaded on July thirty,
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twenty fourteen, and as of the snapshot in our source,
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it's sitting at just under four and a half million.
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Views and about seventy thousand likes right now.
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The source provides these incredibly stark biographical details for the
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two people in the room. We have Joe Rogan described
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as an American podcaster and comedian born in nineteen sixty seven, and.
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Sitting across from him is Michael Stevens, American YouTuber born
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in nineteen eighty six.
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Yeah, that age gap, and honestly, more importantly, that title difference,
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it feels massive for the year twenty fourteen.
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It really represents a fundamental collision of two entirely different
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eras of media. I mean, think about what the title
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stand up comedian meant for someone born in the late
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nineteen sixty It meant you were on the road exactly.
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Rogan came of age in physical spaces. His background is
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completely rooted in brick and mortar comedy clubs, late night
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television spots, traditional broadcasting.
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You write a joke, you stand on a wooden stage
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in front of a live audience, and you get immediate physical,
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audible feedback.
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Right and then you have Michael Stevens born in the
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mid eighties, right, a digital native whose entire claim to
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fame is a completely self made platform.
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Yeah, the title American YouTuber in twenty fourteen was still
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relatively novel.
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It was.
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It wasn't the massive, institutionalized industry it is today. Kids
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in twenty fourteen weren't routinely pelling their guidance counselors they
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wanted to major in YouTube. It still felt like, uh,
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like the wild West.
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It was incredibly renegade. Creators weren't backed by massive production studios.
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They were figuring out lighting, editing, and pacing right in
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their bedrooms.
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And that brings us to the channel description for v Sauce,
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which is explicitly noted in our source. It says v
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Sauce is a place where mind blowing facts and the
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best of the Internet is shared.
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The best of the Internet. I just love that phrasing, right.
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It feels the most romantic, doesn't it. It really does
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like the Internet is this vast, untamed wilderness, and you
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need a seasoned explorer to go out there, you know,
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hack through the digital jungle and bring back the coolest
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shiny rocks they could find.
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It captures a very specific philosophy of early twenty ten's
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digital media. Back then, the Internet felt infinitely vast and
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largely unmapped for the average user.
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Yeah, everything was scattered, exactly.
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Information was siloed on obscure forums, or deep inside academic databases,
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or just buried in dense scientific journals. So someone like
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Michael Stevens stepping up to curate the best of the
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Internet was providing a vital service.
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He was acting as an intellectual translator. Yes, let me
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stop you there, though, because I look at this dynamic,
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you know, the comedian and the YouTuber, and I have
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to push back a little on the idea that this
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was purely about education. Okay, how so, well, was Michael
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Stevens really an intellectual translator or was he essentially acting
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as the cool substitute teacher of the Internet for Joe
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Rogan's audience.
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Oh, the cool substitute teacher, I like that, You know,
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the type, the teacher who rolls the TV card into
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the room, throws the textbook out the window, sits backwards
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on the chair, and says, forget the curriculum.
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Let me tell you how black holes actually work. Right, right,
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I ask, because it feels like there is a mutual
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validation happening here that goes beyond just sharing facts.
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I don't think those two concepts are mutually exclusive at all.
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He was definitely playing that cool substitute teacher role, but
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that persona was the vehicle for the translation. Okay, fair,
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and you are spot on about the mutual validation. That
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is really the hidden subtext of this entire interview for Rogan,
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bringing on a highly intellectual, wildly popular digital educator lent
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a completely different kind of weight to his podcast because at.
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The time his show was largely known for comedians, mma
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fighters and like fringe.
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Thinker exactly, and what did Stevens get out of it?
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Legitimacy in the adult world.
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Yes, appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, which I mean
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even twenty fourteen, was establishing itself as a cultural juggernaut.
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It validated YouTube education as a medium worthy of serious
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long form conversation, right.
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It signaled that v sauce wasn't just short attention span
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trivia for kids to watch while eating cereal.
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It was philosophy, it was science. It could hold its
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own in a three hour, completely unscripted debate.
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It's just a fascinating snapshot of where media was heading.
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I mean, think about your own Internet habits back in
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twenty fourteen for everyone listening.
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Oh, it was a different world.
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Where were you when you first started listening to podcasts?
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It's almost hard to remember a time when listening to
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two people just talk for three hours without commercial breaks
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or producers yelling in their years was considered a radical
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experimental format.
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We completely take it for granted now.
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We do, but back then it was groundbreaking. And our
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source material doesn't just stop at this one interview. It
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expands outward right.
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It reveals the massive enduring footprint of the V Sauce
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brand through the suggested videos that the algorithm populates around
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this converse.
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This is where we move from observing the event itself
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to analyzing the ecosystem it spawned.
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And the numbers in this ecosystem are just staggering. The
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source gives us a few specific V Sauce videos floating
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in this twenty fourteen sidebar.
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We have a video simply titled Ayahuasca sitting at eleven
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million views uploaded eight years ago.
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Wow.
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Yeah, And we have the Science of Awkwardness sitting at
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fifteen million views uploaded eleven years.
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Ago, and then we see spinoff and related content too.
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There's a video by Alex O'Connor titled Hey, V Sauce,
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Does Anything Exist? With one point seven million.
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Views, which is a heavy title it is.
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There's also a later appearance by Stevens on the Lex
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Ferdman podcast hashtag fifty eight with nearly six hundred thousand views,
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and we even see a video from the channel smash
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Alike titled I Spent a Day with V Sauce with
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two point eight million views.
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You really have to pause in wigh the sheer volume
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of those numbers. Fifteen million views on a video exploring
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the biological and social science of feeling.
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Awkward, right million views on a deep dive to the
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chemical and cultural history of a hallucinogenic plant.
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This is empirical proof of a massive public hunger for
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educational content that bridges hard science with the deeply personal,
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messy human experience.
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People didn't just want dry data, They wanted to understand
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their own daily friction through a scientific lens.
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Now you've described this in your notes as turning mind
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blowing facts into high art, but I have to challenge
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you on that a little bit. Okay, No, here, isn't
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calling a YouTube video high art giving it a bit
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too much credit. I mean, at the end of the day,
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isn't it just infotainment optimized for clicks? You put a
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wacky face on the thumbnail, use a punchy title, and
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keep the jump cuts fast. Sure, so, how is that
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different from like a flashy Wikipedia summary.
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It's a totally fair question. But the difference really lies
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in the narrative architecture of v sauce video. It is
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never just a Wikipedia summary really.
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No.
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Steven's perfected a very specific rhetorical technique. He always starts
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with a mundane, almost childishly simple premise like why do
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things fall down? Or why is this awkward?
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Right? That's the bait, exactly.
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That's the bait. But within five minutes he is neurologically
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linked that simple premise to incredibly complex concepts in physics, biology,
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or philosophy. He doesn't just list facts, He builds a
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cascading argument.
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Ah, so he uses the mundane to smuggle in the profound.
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Yes, smuggling in the profound. Look at the evolution shown
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in the titles are source provided. We go from the
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science of awkwardness the alex O'Connor's video, Hey V Sauce,
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does anything exist?
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It's a huge leap.
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It is. What's fascinating here is how this maps a
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transition in the audience's appetite over time. It shows a
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migration from sharing simple quirky trivia to triggering deep existential inquiry.
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V Sauce effectively became a gateway drug to ontology and epistemology.
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Exactly Okay, for anyone listening who didn't just walk out
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of a philosophy one O one seminar, define those terms
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for us in this CONTEXTX, ontology and epistemology. How do
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those connect to a guy making faces at a camera
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on YouTube?
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Great point. Let's break that down simply put. Epistemology is
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the study of knowledge, how do we actually know what
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we know? Like how can you trust your eyes or
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your brain? And ontology is the study of being what
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actually exists in reality. So, in Steven's asked this question, like,
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is you're read the same as my red He's starting
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with a fun optical illusion.
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Oh, I've seen that one, right, But then.
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He's tricking his audience into a deep epistemological debate about
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the limits of human perception. He is asking how we
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can ever truly share an objective.
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Reality that does take immense skill.
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It elevates the medium beyond simple infotainment, and that.
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Ties perfectly into why he was on the Joe Rogan
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experience in the first place. The video titled Ayahuasca is
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the perfect bridge.
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It really is. V.
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Sauce is known for rigorous scientific curiosity, and Joe Rogan's
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podcast is heavily associated with discussions on psychedelics, consciousness, and
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altered states.
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Stevens knew exactly how to translate his brand of scientific
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education into the specific dialect of the audience he was visiting.
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He was highly adaptive, and this early era of V.
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Sauce represented by this twenty fourteen snapshot, essentially laid the
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bedrock for the entire modern landscape of educational video essays
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and science podcasting.
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Because before this Internet education was largely fragmented and honestly
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kind of condescending.
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Yeah, it was either dry university lectures uploaded with terrible audio,
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or it was hyperkinetic content aimed exclusively at middle schoolers.
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Steven's proved you could hold a mass audience's attention for
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twenty thirty or even sixty minutes by treating them as
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intelligent peers on a shared journey of discovery.
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All right, I'm watching your backdrop shift again. The old
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school YouTube interface is dissolving. Now. It looks like a
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massive chaotic chalkboard.
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Yeah, do you like it.
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It's covered in complex physics equations, orbital mechanics diagrams, and
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what looks like theological flow charts, and scattered all over
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it are those class red YouTube play buttons.
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I shifted the visual because we really need to move
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from the seed to the forest. If the JRI and
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Visas interview is the anchor point, the recommended sidebar provided
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in our source, is this sprawling ecosystem that grew around it.
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This is where we get into the mechanics of the
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machine exactly.
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We have to ask ourselves, how does a machine learning
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algorithm categorize the people who watch this? What does it
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associate with this specific twenty fourteen collision of minds.
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You're calling it the curiosity matrix in your notes.
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Let's map it.
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Because the sidebar recommendations in our source are heavily skewed
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towards science, philosophy, and religion, and the mix is incredibly dense.
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It is give some examples from the source.
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Well, we have videos from a channel called the rest
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is Science, specifically titles like We're all being Pulled Together
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and Paradoxes of Infinity.
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Okay, pard Science.
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Right.
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Then we have a clip from sixty Minutes Australia titled
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Ricky Gervais on Atheism, Jesus and the Meaning.
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Of Life, philosophy and religion.
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And then we have these deep, multi hour theological explorations
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by a creator named Mike Winger with titles like Relearning
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the Last Supper and the entire book in one video,
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the Hebrews series Deep Theology, And right alongside all of
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that we have Joe Rogan's own DMT experiences sitting at
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ten million views.
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This is where we really need to look under the
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hood of how recommendation algorithms actually function. The system doesn't
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know who you are personally.
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Right, It isn't reading your diary.
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No, What it does is utilize a mechanism called collaborative
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filtering combined with deep semantic mapping.
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Okay, walk us through that. How does the machine connect
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an interview with a YouTube science guy to a multi
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hour breakdown of the Book of Hebrews and a Ricky
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Gervais interview about atheism.
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So collaborative filtering is basically the algorithm observing mass behavior.
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It says user A watched the V. Sauce interview and
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then watched a video on the paradoxes of infinity. User
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B watched the Vsace interview and then and watched a
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debate on atheism. Therefore, there is a statistical probability that
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the next person who watches visas will be interested in
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both infinity and atheism. It makes sense, but modern algorithms
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go further using semantic mapping. They analyze the actual content,
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the auto generated captions, and the metadata of the videos
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to map a psychological vector for the viewer.
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A psychological vector, so it's charting a trajectory of what
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you're feeling, not just what you're clicking.
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Precisely, if we connect this to the bigger picture, the
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algorithm deduces that a viewer interested in Michael Stevens and
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Joe Rogan isn't just looking for a laugh.
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They are looking to have their mind expanded.
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Yes, they are seeking profound, structural answers about reality. The
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system recognizes this thirst for meaning as a primary psychological driver,
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and it offers to quench that thirst in completely divergent directions.
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So it offers theoretical physics through infinity, it offers altered
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states of consciousness through DMT, and it offers deep structure,
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true meaning through theological and atheistic debates.
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Exactly.
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You know, I used to think of the algorithm like
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a digital bartender. You walk in, ask for a fact
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about gravity, and the bartender says, all right, here's a
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drink about the paradoxes of infinity and a chaser about
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the meaning of life from Ricky Gervase.
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That's a fun way to look at it.
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But based on what you're saying, that analogy is too simple.
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It's more like a hyper observant librarian.
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We like that.
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You walk up to the desk with a basic book
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on gravity. The librarian notices you lingering on a page
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about the vastness of the cosmos, so they silently slide
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a book on the philosophy of space across the desk.
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Right then they notice you furrowing your brow about the
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origins of it all, so they slide over a heavy
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theological text on the creator of the universe. It is
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anticipating questions you haven't even articulated to yourself.
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Yet that is a much more accurate analogy. It is
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an existential tasting menu designed by a machine that is
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relentlessly optimizing for one metric session duration. It just wants
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to keep you there always. And because of that, the
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algorithm is entirely agnostic to the truth claims of the videos.
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It suggests, Oh, that's crucial.
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It doesn't care if Ricky Gervais is correct about atheism,
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and it doesn't care if Mike Winger is correct about
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Christian theology. It only cares about the depth of the
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user's engagement with those worldviews.
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That is a vital point to underline, especially for our listeners.
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We are looking at a system that surfaces secular humanism
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right next to ancient biblical text analysis, right and we're
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simply observing this. We're not endorsing Ricky Gervas's atheism or
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Mike Winger's theology. We are just looking at how the
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machine treats them. It creates a completely flat playing field
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where worldview explorations are treated simply as engagement data points.
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It is a topographical map of the modern Internet user's
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desperate search for meaning, whether that meaning is found in
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the cosmos in a psychedelic trip or in a religious text, and.
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This brings us to a darker realization. I think the
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human drive to uncover hidden t truths, the need to
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understand our place in the universe, is powerful, but it
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is also highly malleable.
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It is very malleable.
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Here's where it gets really interesting because the algorithm doesn't
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just feed pure, pristine, philosophical curiosity. The thirst for meaning
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isn't always positive.
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No, sometimes it mutates, and the.
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Source material captures this mutation perfectly. As we scroll down
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the sidebar, we start hitting the much darker, anxiety driven
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edges of the matrix.
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Yes, we move away from the innocent joy of learning
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mind blowing facts and we enter a space characterized by paranoia,
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existential dread, and real world geopolitical tension.
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We see heavy fringe content existing in the exact same
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ecosystem as a lighthearted video about the science of feeling awkward.
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Give some examples of the darker stuff from the source.
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Okay, the source lists of video titled Baltimore Drug Kingpin
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exposes fentonyl epidemic truth about the.
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Wire right, so true crime is a cietal to kay.
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Then we have a JR clip titled the Official Narrative
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of eight Murders doesn't add up w Tom O'Neill sitting
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at six point three million.
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Views conspiracy and alternative narratives.
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And we have a video titled Professor Jang world War
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III is about to begin, let me explain, which has
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a staggering fourteen million.
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Views Global anxiety.
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We also see a stream from the Foundation for Defensive
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Democracies asking what's the deal with the Iran Deal? And
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we have Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro discuss marijuana use
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with fourteen million views.
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Now, before we dive into this, we have to make
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something crystal clear to our listeners. Yes, absolutely, when discussing
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topics like the Iran Deal, or figures like Ben Shapiro,
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or predictions about World War three, we are maintaining strict neutrality, right.
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We are simply observing the algorithm's behavior here. We are
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not endorsing any of these geopolitical takes or political figures
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left or right.
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The fascination for us is purely in how the machine
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links educational science content to political and global anxiety exactly.
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So with that said, this jeffstaposition raises a c critical
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question about human psychology and algorithmic design. How does a
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user's intent morph from curiosity into conspiracy or existential dread
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within just a few clicks.
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It's a jump, for sure.
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Why does the algorithm think that someone who wants to
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learn about physics also wants to hear a prediction about
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global thermonuclear war?
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Well, it's the slippery slope of the phrase, what aren't
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they telling you? Oh, let's break down the mechanics of
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a V Sauce video again. The foundational premise is often,
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the world is more complex than you think. There's a
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hidden layer of science beneath this everyday object.
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Which is true.
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It is true. That is a very healthy, scientifically rigorous
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form of curiosity. But the algorithm doesn't distinguish between healthy
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scientific inquiry and paranoid speculation. It only tracks the neurological
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reward loop, ah.
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The dopamine and the cortisol exactly.
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The emotional thrill of uncovering a hidden scientific truth feels
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very similar neurologically to the thrill of uncovering a hidden
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societal or political narras.
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So, the algorithm learns that the audience for deep intellectual
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exploration overlaps significantly with the audience seeking to deconstruct official narratives.
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Right, if you want to deconstruct the fabric of reality
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with physics, the machine assumes you might also want to
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deconstruct the fabric of society through geopolitical analysis or true crime.
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00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:23.079
Hold on, let me jump in here, because the source
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lists a few specific topics that might sound like pure
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jargon to someone not fully immersed in internet rabbit holesake
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00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:33.720
what For instance, the source mentions a video titled something
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Happened at CERNE. Scientists still can't explain it? What exactly
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is CERN and why does it keep popping up in
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these algorithmic sidebars next to true crime and World War
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III predictions?
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That's a great example. So CERN is the European Organization
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for Nuclear Research. They operate the Large Hadron Collider.
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Which is that massive underground loop right.
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00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:56.839
Yes, it's a massive particle accelerator buried under the border
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of France and Switzerland. They smash subata particles together at
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nearly the speed of light to understand the fundamental building
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blocks of the universe.
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Okay, so it's incredibly dense high level physics, very high level.
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Then why is it frame like a thriller movie in
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the sidebar.
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Because high level physics is fundamentally incomprehensible to the average person.
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When scientists talk about god particles or dark matter or
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opening microscopic dimensional anomalies, it sounds like science fiction. Oh
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I see, and where there is a gap in public understanding,
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conspiracy theories flourish. The algorithm loves cern because it sits
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perfectly at the intersection of legitimate mind blowing science and
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apocalyptic paranoia.
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It's the ultimate what aren't they telling you? Topic exactly
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that makes total sense. It bridges the gap between Michael
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Stevens teaching you about gravity and Professor Jang telling you
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the world is about to end. It uses the language
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of science to trigger the emotion of fear.
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Yes, and fear is highly.
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Engaging because fear, anxiety, and anger are yeah exactly. If
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a video about the paradoxes of infinity makes you feel
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small and contemplative, a video predicting World War III makes
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you feel urgent and terrified. Both states keep your eyes
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glued to the screen, but one is a lot stickier.
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It is the shift from a dopamine driven reward loop
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of learning to a cortisol driven loop of threat detection.
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The algorithm learns that terrifying users with geopolitical instability or
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hidden murder narratives is incredibly effective for retention.
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And it does all of this without you ever actively
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changing your search parameters. You don't have to type in
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tell me why society is collapsing?
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No, you don't.
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The librarian just slides the book of Impending Doom across
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the desk because they noticed your pupils dilate.
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That's exactly it, which brings us to the final and
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perhaps most disorienting piece of this puzzle.
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Oh the time stamps.
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Yes, we've talked about the shift in tone and topic,
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but looking closely at the timestamps on this single web
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page reveal something deeply unsettling about the very nature of
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digital consumption.
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The timestamps and the source are wild. Let's look at
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the juxtaposition of ages in this single sidebar. We have
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the anchor video, the original JRE interview with v Sauce,
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which is eleven years old. Right, we have the Awkwardness video,
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also eleven years old. But mixed right in with these
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decade old artifacts are live streams and incredibly recent drops.
495
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:19.319
What's the mix like?
496
00:24:19.400 --> 00:24:22.039
Well, we have a video titled AI is creating a
497
00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.440
rare opportunity for investors, which was streamed just one month ago.
498
00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:29.160
We have a clip titled Judge laugh jess at Sovereign
499
00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:32.920
Citizen after bizarre courtroom claim, which was uploaded three weeks ago.
500
00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:35.400
And we have that certain video we just talked about,
501
00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:37.160
uploaded a mirror four hours ago.
502
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.480
This is the phenomenon of the flattening of time in
503
00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:46.519
traditional media environments. Newspapers, television, broadcasts, even terrestrial radio. Time
504
00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:48.240
is strictly linear, right.
505
00:24:48.079 --> 00:24:50.279
It's contextualized by the medium itself.
506
00:24:50.359 --> 00:24:54.039
Exactly you read today's newspaper today. If you watch a
507
00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:58.119
historical documentary on television, the network tells you is a retrospective,
508
00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:02.079
But on the digital interface represented by our source, time
509
00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:03.359
is completely flattened.
510
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:04.599
It's just an endless feed.
511
00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:08.480
Yes, and epistemological conversation from twenty fourteen is served up
512
00:25:08.519 --> 00:25:11.839
with the exact same visual weight, the exact same thumbnail size,
513
00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:15.440
and the exact same algorithmic priority as a breaking newstream
514
00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.079
about AI investing from a month ago, in a fringe
515
00:25:18.119 --> 00:25:19.920
science video from four hours ago.
516
00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.440
So what does this all mean for the human brain
517
00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:26.480
processing this? If I'm sitting down at my computer and
518
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:29.880
I'm absorbing in eleven year old fact about ayahuasca, right
519
00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:31.839
next to a three week old video of a sovereign
520
00:25:31.880 --> 00:25:35.480
citizen in a courtroom. Does the concept of current events
521
00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:36.880
even exist anymore?
522
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:38.200
It's blurring, isn't it.
523
00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:40.960
It feels like we are living in a perpetual now.
524
00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:44.400
The perpetual now is a perfect term for it. When
525
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:48.759
time is flattened. Context is the first casualty. It forces
526
00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:50.640
an immense cognitive load onto the.
527
00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:52.319
User because you have to sort it yourself.
528
00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:54.720
You can no longer rely on the medium to tell
529
00:25:54.759 --> 00:25:56.920
you where you are in history. You have to bring
530
00:25:56.960 --> 00:26:00.200
your own internal clock and your own critical context to
531
00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:01.880
every single square edge of the interface.
532
00:26:01.960 --> 00:26:04.720
Quick tangent, because you mentioned the cognitive load. That video
533
00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:08.079
titled judge laughis at sovereign citizen. I've seen these pop
534
00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:08.559
up everywhere.
535
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:10.160
Oh they're viral gold.
536
00:26:10.039 --> 00:26:13.640
For the uninitiated. What is a sovereign citizen? And why
537
00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.240
does the algorithm love serving these courtroom videos? Right next
538
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:19.720
to complex science and global politics right?
539
00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:22.880
So Sovereign citizens are individuals who subscribe to a pseudo
540
00:26:22.960 --> 00:26:27.480
legal belief system. They fundamentally believe that by using specific
541
00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:32.480
linguistic loopholes, or by citing obscure, often misinterpreted historical documents,
542
00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:36.559
they are immune from normal government laws, taxes, or court systems.
543
00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:38.160
That sounds exhausting, it is.
544
00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:41.279
They frequently end up in court over minor infractions like
545
00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:44.359
traffic tickets, and they attempt to argue with the judge
546
00:26:44.759 --> 00:26:47.240
using this bizarre, convoluted legal.
547
00:26:47.079 --> 00:26:50.000
Jargon, and the judges usually don't have time for it exactly.
548
00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:54.000
The videos usually feature a complete breakdown of communication, ending
549
00:26:54.119 --> 00:26:56.160
in the sovereign citizen being held in contempt.
550
00:26:56.359 --> 00:26:59.000
But why is the algorithm pushing them next to physics?
551
00:26:59.720 --> 00:27:02.960
The algorithm loves these videos because they offer an incredible
552
00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:07.920
voyeuristic thrill. They provide a clear narrative of order versus chaos.
553
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:11.440
It's a very different kind of engagement than a physics video. Right.
554
00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:14.680
A VSACE video makes you feel smarter. A sovereign citizen
555
00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:18.000
courtroom video makes you feel sane. By comparison, Oh wow,
556
00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:20.359
it's junk food for the ego, served right next to
557
00:27:20.359 --> 00:27:21.400
the high art philosophy.
558
00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:26.319
It really is an infinite, swirling vortex of content. I
559
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:29.720
want you listening right now to think about your own feeds,
560
00:27:30.240 --> 00:27:32.519
open up your app of choice later today, and just
561
00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:33.599
look at the timestamps.
562
00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:34.960
It's an eye opening exercise.
563
00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:37.720
How often are you learning a profound life lesson from
564
00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:41.200
a lecture recorded a decade ago, only to immediately auto
565
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:45.599
play into a live breaking news broadcast about a local emergency.
566
00:27:45.160 --> 00:27:47.720
Right, and then into a meme exactly.
567
00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:49.240
And then AutoPlay into a meme that was created ten
568
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:53.799
minutes ago. How does this complete lack of chronological context
569
00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:55.319
change how you view the world?
570
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:57.680
Does it make you feel more connected to the span
571
00:27:57.759 --> 00:27:59.039
of human knowledge or.
572
00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:00.400
Does it just make you feel like you're floating in
573
00:28:00.440 --> 00:28:02.799
a void where everything is happening all at once.
574
00:28:03.039 --> 00:28:06.799
It demands an entirely new kind of digital literacy. We
575
00:28:06.839 --> 00:28:09.720
are no longer just consumers of information. We are forced
576
00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:11.640
to be real time historians of our own.
577
00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:15.839
Feeds, constantly sorting, dating, and contextualizing the data being thrown
578
00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:18.599
at us. Well, this has been an incredible journey. What
579
00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:21.480
started as a simple look at a single web page
580
00:28:21.519 --> 00:28:25.160
from July twenty fourteen, a meeting between a stand up
581
00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:29.240
comedian and a YouTube educator has really unspooled into a
582
00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:31.799
profound map of modern internet mechanics.
583
00:28:31.880 --> 00:28:33.200
We covered a lot of ground today.
584
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:36.960
We started with the innocent exciting sharing of mind blowing
585
00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:40.599
facts and curating the best of the Internet. We watched
586
00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:44.960
that curiosity expand outward through the algorithm into deep, multi
587
00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:48.079
hour explorations of existential philosophy and theology.
588
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:51.240
And we tracked how the underlying architecture of that algorithm,
589
00:28:51.279 --> 00:28:54.920
the semantic mapping, and the optimization for session duration, can
590
00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:58.720
seamlessly guide that exact same drive for discovery into the darker,
591
00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:01.359
cortisol driven edge is the digital rabbit hole.
592
00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:04.119
Right, we move from the biology of awkwardness to the
593
00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:07.200
paranoia of true crime and predictions of global conflict.
594
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:10.640
We've seen how the machine builds a psychological vector based
595
00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:11.960
on our thirst for meaning, and.
596
00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:14.160
How it serves it all back to us in a flattened,
597
00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:17.359
timeless loop where twenty fourteen and four hours ago exists
598
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:18.640
in the exact same breath.
599
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:20.160
It truly is a living artifact.
600
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:24.720
And looking at your backdrop right now, the sprawling chalkboard
601
00:29:24.759 --> 00:29:28.519
is fading, the complex equations and the YouTube interfaces are
602
00:29:28.519 --> 00:29:29.759
dissolving into the black.
603
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.039
The digital matrix is powering down.
604
00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:36.240
Yes, it's leaving just a single blinking cursor on a
605
00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:39.839
black screen, a prompt waiting for the next input. Waiting
606
00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:41.079
for the next search, which.
607
00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:44.640
Feels entirely appropriate. Because we wrap up this deep dive
608
00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:47.640
into the metadata of our past, we want to leave
609
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:49.640
you with a final provocative thought.
610
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:53.599
We've spent this time analyzing the algorithmic ecosystem surrounding someone
611
00:29:53.599 --> 00:29:56.079
else's conversation, But what about yours?
612
00:29:56.599 --> 00:30:00.160
Right if a machine learning algorithm took a snapshot of
613
00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:04.039
the exact mix of videos, articles, and audio surrounding your
614
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:07.720
digital footprint today, from your innocent, trivial pursuits to your
615
00:30:07.720 --> 00:30:11.720
most terrifying late night anxieties, what story would that matrix
616
00:30:11.759 --> 00:30:13.240
tell researcher ten years from now?
617
00:30:13.720 --> 00:30:16.000
What would it say about what you were desperately searching
618
00:30:16.039 --> 00:30:18.599
for exactly something to moul over the next time the
619
00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:22.559
AutoPlay timer starts ticking down, keep questioning the interface, keep
620
00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:24.960
curating your own curiosity, and we'll see you next time.