Something Is Very Wrong With Modern Life - Arthur Brooks - #1109

Why do so many people feel like modern life is simulated rather than real? Because it is. We're living in the Matrix. That movie, The Matrix, came out 27 years ago. I hate to shock and sadden you.

It'll make anybody who was alive then feel old. But the plot of that movie was that a great artificial intelligence was dominating the human race and kept the human race placid in a pleasant simulation so that it could feed off human kinetic energy. It kept them in pods and ran a simulation. And and the truth of the matter is that we are subjugated, not by people necessarily, but by algorithms that fundamentally are creating a simulated version of a real life that's pleasant enough, keeps us from being bored, and that feeds off our attention and energy and money. We're living in the matrix.

And that's why people say, I don't know, it doesn't feel Like real dating. Doesn't feel like real friends. Scroll, scroll, scroll. It doesn't feel like real achievement.

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