Uncanny Valley | WIRED6 Aug 2021

I Can Haz Memes

Internet memes seem harmless enough. A few pictures of cats with some grammatically incorrect text—what could go wrong? Well, memes have come a long way since the early days of the internet. For more than a decade, memes have been deployed as a weapon in culture wars. And they’re even more persuasive than most people realize. A well-placed meme on somebody’s social media timeline can lead them down a rabbit hole of radicalization, misinformation, and extremism. This week on Gadget Lab, we talk with Emily Dreyfuss, a senior editor at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy about how memes have shaped politics and culture. Show Notes: Read more about all kinds of disinformation at Harvard Shorenstein Center’s Media Manipulation Casebook. Here’s Emily’s story about her life as a robot. Read Angela Watercutter’s story about the Bernie Sanders mittens memes. Recommendations: Emily recommends that you look up what happens to an artichoke if you let it flower, and also American Nations by Colin Woodard. Mike recommends r/random, which takes you to a different subreddit every time you click. Lauren recommends the HBO show White Lotus. Emily Dreyfuss can be found on Twitter @EmilyDreyfuss. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys. If you have feedback about the show, or just want to enter to win a $50 gift card, take our brief listener survey here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(479)

Inside Elon Musk's Midterm Spending Spree; What Is Effective Altruism Exactly?

This week, the team dives into how Elon Musk's America PAC is spending millions on the most consequential Senate races of the 2026 midterms — and how most of that money goes to opposing Democrats rath...

8 Okt 30min

Kevin Roose Didn’t Use AI to Write His Book About AI

The author of The AGI Chronicles says his book “was written by a very tired, overworked, under-slept human being.” Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of t...

6 Okt 35min

Are AI Agents Worth the Risk? and Trump’s Pinky Swear AI Safety ‘Accord

This week, President Trump issued a new “morally binding” AI accord after a lunch meeting with tech executives, that basically says the AI labs are going to regulate themselves. We get into how a non-...

1 Okt 44min

There Is No ‘Existential Threat’ From AI Says Timnit Gebru

One of AI’s fiercest critics believes the doom talk is about founders making money, not saving humanity. Check out the new WIRED app. Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they disse...

29 Sep 31min

Inside the Network of Anonymous Men Destroying Young Women's Lives

Last year, Maddie Kowalski was a regular sophomore attending the University of Florida. That is until one day, a series of anonymous accounts on X started proliferating explicit, non-consensual videos...

24 Sep 19min

Patti Harrison Grew Up With Tech As Her North Star. Not Anymore

Comedian Patti Harrison hates social media. She wishes she didn't have to use it at all. To her, the internet is a slop factory. One of her biggest concerns: intentionally created confusion meant to d...

22 Sep 34min

What Would the AI Apocalypse Look Like? We Went Looking for Answers

The debate of whether AI can kill us has been everywhere lately, but how exactly would an actual AI catastrophe look like? This week, the team went looking for answers and found the three real-world s...

17 Sep 37min

If the US Collapses Soon, Don’t Blame Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel, Station Eleven, turned her into something of a pandemic prophet. This month, she’s releasing her newest novel, Exit Party, which imagines two possible American futu...

15 Sep 34min