## Metadata - Author: [[Benn Stancil]] - Full Title:: It Is the Internet - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://benn.substack.com/p/it-is-the-internet - Read date:: [[2025-09-13]] ## Highlights > There is nothing constitutional in people today that is better or worse than it was before. We are all as mediocre as ever. > But the facilities around us are not. Now, we can build a giant machine that encourages us to indulge in our worst tendencies. We can [design that machine](https://benn.substack.com/p/the-scorpion-box?utm_source=publication-search#:~:text=Or%2C%20more%20generally%2C%20you%20could%20tell%20this%20story%20this%20way%3A) so that those who use it can mainline its most toxic and addictive chemicals. We can ask the machine to tell us [we are right](https://benn.substack.com/p/ban-chatgpt), and use it to [meet other people](https://benn.substack.com/p/runaway-train) who will also tell us we are right. We can drive ourselves mad by living in the machine—posting to it, fighting on it, and, eventually, murdering for it. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k4zq6qbpp4w70xbmaj79kbfs)) > We all want all of this to stop. But keep giving us the internet and we will keep doing the same thing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01k4zpv00xyq95p9wsqmwxdp3r))