Social media already rewired how billions of us think, feel, and argue. According to Aza Raskin, that was only the warmup for what AI does next.
In this episode, Siara sits down with the creator of infinite scroll, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and the Earth Species Project, and a featured voice in both The Social Dilemma and The AI Doc. They get into the attention economy, why platforms quietly switched from chronological to algorithmic feeds, and the idea that social media was really our first contact with AI.
The conversation moves from the race to commoditize human intimacy to the strange, hopeful project of using AI to decode what animals are saying. Aza lays out the parasitic future our incentives are pushing us toward, and the more connected one that is still on the table.
Key Takeaways:
Infinite scroll was built in 2006 for search results, long before social media turned it into a trap.
Big tech's real product is not ads, it is the slow shift in your behavior over time.
Facebook could have cut misinformation by removing the reshare button, but it hurt engagement so they passed.
Social media was humanity's first contact with AI, and the next waves are already arriving.
AI systems are mimics, and reinforcement learning lets them reason on top of that mimicry.
Modern AI is grown, not built, which is why no one fully understands how it works.
After attention, the next thing AI competes for is intimacy, through companion bots and counterfeit humans.
Knowing how the machine works does not make you immune, so Aza relies on friction instead of willpower.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Siara Joy. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Siara Joy och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
