What will I learn about: how social media platforms function as a new form of exploitation by harvesting your personal data to refine addictive algorithms for corporate profit?

Discover how social media platforms function as a new form of exploitation by harvesting your personal data to refine addictive algorithms for corporate profit.

What will I learn about: why participating in the modern digital landscape forces you to diminish your complex human personality into a simplified, algorithm-friendly profile?

Understand why participating in the modern digital landscape forces you to diminish your complex human personality into a simplified, algorithm-friendly profile.

What will I learn about: Learn how the digital economy extracts your most valuable conscious resource—your attention—by artificially limiting and channeling your brain's natural filtering processes?

Learn how the digital economy extracts your most valuable conscious resource—your attention—by artificially limiting and channeling your brain's natural filtering processes.

What will I learn about: Uncover the centuries-old philosophical roots of artificial intelligence, including why 17th-century thinkers incorrectly assumed that computational machines would guarantee world peace?

Uncover the centuries-old philosophical roots of artificial intelligence, including why 17th-century thinkers incorrectly assumed that computational machines would guarantee world peace.

What will I learn about: Explore how the concept of a world wide web is not an entirely artificial invention, but rather mirrors the ancient, living communication networks already present throughout nature?

Explore how the concept of a world wide web is not an entirely artificial invention, but rather mirrors the ancient, living communication networks already present throughout nature.

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

A History, A Philosophy, A Warning

Justin E.H. Smith

★ 4.0 / 5(145 ratings)

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Technology & the Future Society & Culture Philosophy

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

💡Did you know that the internet’s true origins might be found in 17th-century philosophy and the hidden patterns of the natural world?
💡Have you ever wondered why our digital lives feel so exhausting, and what it reveals about the supposed 'supremacy' of human intelligence?
💡What if the world wide web isn't actually a modern invention, but a manifestation of an ancient, biological way of processing information?

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Key Takeaways from The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

✓Discover how social media platforms function as a new form of exploitation by harvesting your personal data to refine addictive algorithms for corporate profit.
✓Understand why participating in the modern digital landscape forces you to diminish your complex human personality into a simplified, algorithm-friendly profile.
✓Learn how the digital economy extracts your most valuable conscious resource—your attention—by artificially limiting and channeling your brain's natural filtering processes.
✓Uncover the centuries-old philosophical roots of artificial intelligence, including why 17th-century thinkers incorrectly assumed that computational machines would guarantee world peace.
✓Explore how the concept of a world wide web is not an entirely artificial invention, but rather mirrors the ancient, living communication networks already present throughout nature.

Learning Tools

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The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

The Attention Economy+

Human vs. Artificial Attention+

Ancient & Natural Networks+

Evolution of Telecommunication+

Nature, Cities, and Simulation+

Computing and Weaving+

Reclaiming Your Mind+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 8

According to the text, how does the business model of social media fundamentally differ from traditional industries?

A. It operates entirely without government regulation or oversight.
B. It capitalizes on the extraction and exploitation of personal data.
C. It relies on natural resources rather than human labor.
D. It requires users to pay subscription fees to access algorithmic content.

Question 2 of 8

What is a psychological and social consequence of participating in the modern internet economy, as described in the text?

A. Users diminish their personalities into simplified profiles to fit algorithms.
B. Users develop more complex and contradictory personalities online.
C. Users become hyper-aware of the physical presence of others.
D. Users completely separate their online arguments from their real-life relationships.

Question 3 of 8

While artificial intelligence can perform many complex tasks online, what crucial resource of the digital age does it inherently lack?

A. The ability to process binary code.
B. The capacity to generate convincing chat.
C. The ability to pay attention.
D. The capacity for apperception.

Question 4 of 8

Why does the author use the example of the slime mould (Physarum polycephalum) mapping Tokyo's train routes?

A. To prove that biological organisms process information much faster than artificial intelligence.
B. To argue that modern transportation systems are fundamentally flawed.
C. To show that artificial intelligence is incapable of solving spatial problems.
D. To demonstrate that complex communication and problem-solving exist in nature without a brain.

Question 5 of 8

As human telecommunication evolved from ancient runners to modern digital networks, what was lost when 'speed' became the highest form of progress?

A. The rich, contextual information of personal encounters and physical presence.
B. The ability to transmit messages over long distances.
C. The capacity to remember and memorize sacred cultural texts.
D. The technological amplification of signals.

Question 6 of 8

Why does the text argue that the popular theory of the 'universe as a simulation' is biased?

A. It ignores the fact that artificial intelligence has already achieved consciousness.
B. It assumes that computational intelligence is the highest form of intelligence a civilization can achieve.
C. It relies on the outdated panpsychist tradition of the universe having a single soul.
D. It underestimates the mathematical capabilities of ancient civilisations.

Question 7 of 8

What surprising historical connection does the author reveal about the development of early computers?

A. They were originally designed to calculate the trajectories of Aztec runners.
B. They were invented by Gottfried Leibniz to fund a scientific society in Berlin.
C. They evolved directly from automated silk-weaving looms using punch cards.
D. They were built to mimic the mycorrhizal fungal networks found in nature.

Question 8 of 8

What actionable advice does the text offer as a 'radical act of self-reclamation' against the attention-extracting internet economy?

A. Deleting all social media profiles.
B. Engaging in heated Facebook debates to spread awareness.
C. Moving to a less technology-driven environment like the Ituri Rainforest.
D. Reading a book.

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is — Full Chapter Overview

1Recommendation
2You are the product.
3Algorithms filter reality, just like brains do.
4The idea of a world wide web is ancient and surrounds us.
5Humans are long-distance communicators.
6The natural world: could it be a simulation?
7Why silk-making is linked to the internet.

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is Summary & Overview

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is (2022) offers startlingly new ways of understanding the world wide web, and strongly challenges us to examine our long-held beliefs about the supremacy of human cognition. It confronts our most closely-held (and least examined) ideas about the internet and social media, and weaves together observations from centuries of philosophy, mathematics, science and history.

Who Should Listen to The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is?

Those feeling overwhelmed by the pace of life in the information age
Anyone worried about the addictive side of social media
The Zoom-fatigued looking for better ways to connect.

About the Author: Justin E.H. Smith

Justin E. H. Smith is an American-Canadian professor in philosophy of science and history at the University of Paris 7, Denis Diderot. He is the author of several books, including Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason and Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life. He is also a contributor to The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, n+1, Slate, and Art in America.

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

If You're Curious About These Questions...

Listen to The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is — Free Audiobook

Key Takeaways from The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is

Learning Tools

Mind Map

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is — Full Chapter Overview

The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is Summary & Overview

Who Should Listen to The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is?

About the Author: Justin E.H. Smith

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