Social media companies told themselves stories about giving people voice and connecting friends, but the underlying incentive structure was to maximize attention for growth, which naturally selected for content that triggers the brainstem rather than serving users' interests.
causalpending
Speaker
Tristan HarrisEvidence Quote
“underneath that though... what was the incentive behind Tik Tok Instagram Twitter and Facebook... You Can't Run infinite growth on a finite amount of human attention that's how you got the race to the bottom of the brain stem”
Source
AI: Grappling with a New Kind of Intelligence | World Science Festival— World Science FestivalCreated: 8/10/2026, 10:49:40 PM
My Notes
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