Hacking Humans

WIRED's editor in chief Nick Thompson talks to Yuval Noah Harari and Tristan Harris about how social platforms expertly manipulate our thinking.

Hey watch this YouTube video I just sent you. When it’s over, maybe watch another one. Oh, wow, that one looks interesting too—click on it. Oh never mind, it just plays. Maybe watch this one too? How long have we been here? Only an hour? Surely there’s time for one more … And so it goes. Every day, as we watch videos, consume social media, and decide what to buy, we’re being expertly manipulated. Or, to use the words of historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, we’ve been hacked. Harari is the author of the new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. On this week’s show, WIRED editor in chief Nick Thompson sits down with Harari and Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris to discuss this phenomenon. At the top of the show, we bring you the tech news of the week, and as always, we’ll close with our recommendations.

Some notes: Watch the full video interview with Harari and Harris. Read Garrett Graff on the long, strange history of the Presidential alert. Also, what does it mean if you didn’t get it? Microsoft’s new Surface hardware. The Bloomberg report about tainted servers, and Lily Hay Newman’s analysis of the impact. Also! Come to WIRED 25 next week. Recommendations this week: Sans Forgetica and Quincy on Netflix.

Send the hosts feedback on their personal Twitter feeds. Arielle Pardes is @pardesoteric, Michael Calore is @snackfight, and Nick Thompson is @nxthompson. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. Our theme song is by Solar Keys.

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