615: Wait But Why...Do We Use the Internet Like That?

Today's bonus podcast welcomes Tim Urban, author of the blog Wait But Why (https://waitbutwhy.com/) and the book "What's Our Problem?"

For a change of pace, this episode focuses on what happens *on* the consumer internet, not just the underlying technology and business of the web.

You'll quickly see that Tim is an astute observer of human trends, with a wealth of insight on how the internet has complicated communication and contributed to humans' tendency to fall into tribalism.

Host Greg Bryan relates these insights to the structure of the global telecom industry as the pair considers the breadth of human history and how our brains, in some ways, are ill-equipped to handle the environment in which we find ourselves in the 21st century.

This discussion covers:

• The internet's role in the evolution of human communication, and context for this current moment of memes, sharing, liking, subscribing, and, in general, a culture of being terminally online.
• Tim's forthcoming book, which attempts to tell the story of everything from the Big Bang to the end of the universe. (Don't worry if that sounds like a big topic; the pair focuses on the section about AI.)
• Where AI will go from here? The conversation ties in how the internet is the physical backbone for this new "synthetic brain" that we are building, and what that might mean.

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