[2.8] You Are Food for The Machine

The Matrix looks more and more like the perfect allegory for the modern age. States, corporations, social systems, and even ideas have a mind of their own, and they are hungry. By participating blindly and uncritically in these systems, we feed them, and they take over more and more of our lives.

Sources:

•     Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (1976)

•     Earth.org / Environment+Energy Leader fast-fashion waste roundups (2025–26)

•     Reed Hastings, Netflix earnings call / Summit LA17 remarks (2017)

•     Tristan Harris, Senate testimony (2017)

•     Dale & Krueger, NBER working paper (1999) / QJE (2002); follow-up NBER (2011) / Journal of Human Resources (2014) 

•     ProPublica & *The Chronicle of Higher Education*, “The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a 'Peer-Reviewed' Author,” May 2023.

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