WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Hello, and welcome to today's deep dive. I am 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:04.580 your host, and I'm super excited to get into 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:06.759 our topic today. Hey, everyone. I'm your resident 00:00:06.759 --> 00:00:09.259 expert for the day. And yeah, I am very ready 00:00:09.259 --> 00:00:12.919 for this one. Awesome. So today we're going to 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:16.039 do a deep dive into, honestly, one of the most 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:18.739 viewed and highly debated cultural phenomena 00:00:18.739 --> 00:00:21.800 of the last five years. Oh, yeah. Absolutely 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:24.539 massive. Right. We are talking about what I eat 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:27.260 in the day videos. You know the ones I mean. 00:00:27.339 --> 00:00:29.879 Oh, I mean. Everyone knows them, the highly curated 00:00:29.879 --> 00:00:34.259 vlogs, the relentless aesthetic standards. Exactly. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:38.000 The profound cultural impact of people documenting 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.780 literally every single meal online. It is a huge 00:00:40.780 --> 00:00:43.500 topic. It is. So to get the absolute baseline 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:45.539 facts for this deep dive, I went to the internet's 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:47.759 largest supposed free -for -all encyclopedia. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.119 I typed in the query, hit enter. And you hit 00:00:50.119 --> 00:00:53.159 a wall. I hit an absolute void. The page has 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:55.219 been completely wiped from existence. We're looking 00:00:55.219 --> 00:00:58.079 at a literal article not found. Yeah, and if 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:00.679 you are, like most people, navigating the internet, 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:03.899 when you hit that dead end, your instinct is 00:01:03.899 --> 00:01:07.239 to simply close the PAB. Totally. You just bail. 00:01:07.500 --> 00:01:09.400 Exactly. You assume the information just isn't 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:11.299 there, and you move on to the next search result. 00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:14.099 But we are absolutely not doing that today. No, 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:16.579 we are not. Because instead of just abandoning 00:01:16.579 --> 00:01:20.709 the topic, we are embarking on this, like, Meta 00:01:20.709 --> 00:01:23.530 analytical mission. We are going to basically 00:01:23.530 --> 00:01:26.709 conduct an autopsy on this empty digital room 00:01:26.709 --> 00:01:29.150 Which I love it is such a brilliant way to look 00:01:29.150 --> 00:01:32.829 at it, right? It turns out when you stop looking 00:01:32.829 --> 00:01:34.409 for the missing information and start looking 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.370 at the architecture of the void itself It's actually 00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:41.170 highly structured It is. By studying the scaffolding 00:01:41.170 --> 00:01:43.629 around the missing information, we actually learn 00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:45.629 more about the philosophical priorities of the 00:01:45.629 --> 00:01:47.409 platform. Oh, totally. It tells this much bigger 00:01:47.409 --> 00:01:50.109 story about the death of open knowledge, you 00:01:50.109 --> 00:01:53.549 know, and how human culture is aggressively categorized. 00:01:53.709 --> 00:01:55.989 And the intense bureaucracy required to even 00:01:55.989 --> 00:01:58.909 exist on the modern Internet. We're essentially 00:01:58.909 --> 00:02:01.310 looking at the foundational rules of digital 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:03.329 reality. So let's start with the crime scene 00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:06.329 itself, the literal visual environment of this 00:02:06.329 --> 00:02:08.789 empty page. Because the source material for this 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:12.129 deep dive isn't actually text about food or internet 00:02:12.129 --> 00:02:15.490 influencers. No, it is the raw user interface 00:02:15.490 --> 00:02:18.990 of this blank screen. And I mean, the sheer amount 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:20.990 of aesthetic control the platform gives you over 00:02:20.990 --> 00:02:23.949 this absolute nothingness is just jarring. It 00:02:23.949 --> 00:02:27.610 really is. The list of visual toggles is entirely 00:02:27.610 --> 00:02:30.210 comprehensive. The moment you land on this void, 00:02:30.430 --> 00:02:32.569 you're presented with an appearance menu. Yeah, 00:02:32.669 --> 00:02:34.669 a whole suite of personal tools. You can go into 00:02:34.669 --> 00:02:37.789 a setting called color beta. and meticulously 00:02:37.789 --> 00:02:41.409 set the non -existent page to light, dark, or 00:02:41.409 --> 00:02:43.849 automatic. Which is wild. And you can adjust 00:02:43.849 --> 00:02:46.949 the text size from small to standard to large. 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:50.560 is incredibly confusing. Right, because the page 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:53.099 itself stubbornly insists in a submenu that it 00:02:53.099 --> 00:02:56.159 always uses small font size. Right, so why even 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:58.400 give me the option? And you can even toggle the 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:01.620 layout width from standard to wide so that the 00:03:01.620 --> 00:03:04.139 emptiness stretches as wide as possible for your 00:03:04.139 --> 00:03:06.300 browser window. Which brings us to, honestly, 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:08.680 the most perplexing toggle on the entire interface. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:11.860 Oh my gosh, yes. The birthday mode. The baby 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:14.750 globe. the baby globe. You can actually go into 00:03:14.750 --> 00:03:17.409 the side menu and flip this toggle from zero 00:03:17.409 --> 00:03:19.849 disabled to one enabled on a page that holds 00:03:19.849 --> 00:03:23.569 zero information. It is. It's so strange. OK, 00:03:23.629 --> 00:03:25.830 let's unpack this. It is exactly like walking 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.990 into this massive world renowned museum. I like 00:03:28.990 --> 00:03:32.229 this analogy. So you walk in and the climate 00:03:32.229 --> 00:03:35.129 control is just humming perfectly. The recessed 00:03:35.129 --> 00:03:37.849 lighting is fully adjustable on these like. beautiful 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:40.469 brushed steel dimmer switches. Very fancy. Super 00:03:40.469 --> 00:03:43.169 fancy. There are state -of -the -art accessibility 00:03:43.169 --> 00:03:46.550 ramps at every single corner, but there's absolutely 00:03:46.550 --> 00:03:49.050 zero art on the walls. Nothing at all. Nothing. 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:52.430 Why do we need birthday mode for a void? Why 00:03:52.430 --> 00:03:54.650 does the platform care so much about the framing 00:03:54.650 --> 00:03:57.169 when the picture is missing? Because it highlights 00:03:57.169 --> 00:03:59.409 a fundamental shift in how digital platforms 00:03:59.409 --> 00:04:02.569 are engineered today. The user experience, that 00:04:02.569 --> 00:04:05.229 aesthetic scaffolding is prioritized above everything 00:04:05.229 --> 00:04:07.479 else. Oh, wow. even above the actual content. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:09.620 Exactly. It operates completely independently 00:04:09.620 --> 00:04:12.139 of the actual content. The platform is designed 00:04:12.139 --> 00:04:14.180 to make you feel comfortable, accommodated, and 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:16.379 in control of your environment. Even when it 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:18.759 is handing you a completely blank sheet of paper. 00:04:18.920 --> 00:04:22.100 Right. It is the illusion of a personalized experience. 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:24.300 Like, please, make yourself at home in our empty 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:26.959 room. Dim the lights if you prefer. That is the 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:30.199 exact psychological mechanism at play. It signals 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:32.300 to the user that the architecture of the internet 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:35.920 is permanent and robust. while human knowledge 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:39.360 is, you know, transient. The frames built to 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:42.399 outlast the painting. Beautifully put. And providing 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:45.100 this level of granular control, letting you dictate 00:04:45.100 --> 00:04:48.540 light mode, dark mode, wide margins, it's a deliberate 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:51.579 design choice to build systemic trust. Because 00:04:51.579 --> 00:04:53.899 if the interface is this polished and functional, 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:56.560 you inherently trust the authority of the system. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.180 Yes. Even when it tells you your query doesn't 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:02.579 exist. Man, that is deep. Which brings us to 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:05.670 the obvious next question. If the museum room 00:05:05.670 --> 00:05:08.110 is empty and the lighting is perfectly tuned, 00:05:08.829 --> 00:05:10.949 how does a person actually go about putting art 00:05:10.949 --> 00:05:13.089 on the walls? Right, because this page doesn't 00:05:13.089 --> 00:05:15.509 just apologize for being empty. No, it hands 00:05:15.509 --> 00:05:18.529 you a strict, highly detailed instructional manual 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:21.720 for existence. It lays out the exact sequence 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.939 of bureaucratic events required to bring what 00:05:24.939 --> 00:05:28.120 I eat in a day videos into reality. And it is 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:31.000 heavily guarded. I mean, the text specifically 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.980 dictates you need to log in or create an account 00:05:33.980 --> 00:05:36.920 and be auto confirmed to create new articles. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:39.800 Auto confirmed. Auto confirmed. Or it offers 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:42.120 an alternative. It says you can use the article 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.610 wizard. to submit a draft for review or request 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:47.790 a new article. Which is quite the process. I 00:05:47.790 --> 00:05:50.009 find this fascinating because it completely shatters 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:52.430 the public perception of this site. We've been 00:05:52.430 --> 00:05:55.750 told since the early 2000s that this is the democratized 00:05:55.750 --> 00:05:57.810 free -for -all. The open encyclopedia that anyone 00:05:57.810 --> 00:06:00.910 can edit. Right. But reading this, it sounds 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:02.889 like a bureaucratic video game quest. Use the 00:06:02.889 --> 00:06:04.889 wizard to submit a draft. What's fascinating 00:06:04.889 --> 00:06:07.009 here is what this reveals about the curation 00:06:07.009 --> 00:06:09.790 of information. The rhetoric of the early internet 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:12.829 was undeniably about tearing down walls and open 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:15.009 access. For sure. Information wants to be free, 00:06:15.009 --> 00:06:17.430 all that. Exactly. But this single empty page 00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:20.490 proves that era is dead. Knowledge on the modern 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:23.110 internet is locked behind massive structural 00:06:23.110 --> 00:06:25.490 hurdles. Designed to protect the integrity of 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:28.189 the database, I'm assuming. Precisely. Ensuring 00:06:28.189 --> 00:06:31.189 only vetted entities can fill the void. Hold 00:06:31.189 --> 00:06:32.790 on, let me push back on that framing a little 00:06:32.790 --> 00:06:36.819 bit. Calling it a tragedy of the open web feels 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:39.040 a bit nostalgic, doesn't it? How do you mean? 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:42.899 Well, if this site didn't have these wizards 00:06:42.899 --> 00:06:45.079 and auto -confirmed statuses, wouldn't it just 00:06:45.079 --> 00:06:49.139 be an absolute wasteland of automated spam, corporate 00:06:49.139 --> 00:06:53.019 PR, and malicious vandalism? That is a completely 00:06:53.019 --> 00:06:55.019 fair point. Like, they have to draw a line somewhere 00:06:55.019 --> 00:06:56.699 to keep the whole thing from collapsing, right? 00:06:56.699 --> 00:06:59.579 Yes, and that cuts to the core of why these systems 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.120 exist. You have to look at the mechanics of how 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:05.160 malicious actors operate online. Okay. Automated 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:07.620 spam networks and bot farms can generate thousands 00:07:07.620 --> 00:07:10.399 of fake pages per second, flooding a site with 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:13.339 links to malware or counterfeit goods. Oh wow. 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:16.439 Thousands a second. Easily. So the concept of 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:18.839 being auto -confirmed is actually a mathematical 00:07:18.839 --> 00:07:20.759 defense mechanism against that? How does that 00:07:20.759 --> 00:07:22.699 actually work under the hood? Like what makes 00:07:22.699 --> 00:07:25.860 a user auto -confirmed? It usually requires an 00:07:25.860 --> 00:07:28.360 account to age for a specific number of days 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.379 and for that user to make a minimum number of 00:07:31.379 --> 00:07:34.379 legitimate edits to existing pages. I see. A 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:37.800 spam bot operates on volume and speed. It cannot 00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:40.459 afford to wait four days and carefully correct 00:07:40.459 --> 00:07:44.079 typos on an article about 14th century agriculture 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:47.079 just to earn the right to post a spam link. That 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:49.680 makes total sense. By forcing a user to earn 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.439 that status, the platform essentially bankrupts 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:54.879 the bot's business model. Exactly. So the friction 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:57.060 is highly intentional. Completely intentional. 00:07:57.139 --> 00:08:00.000 But what about normal people? Well, for the human 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.399 users who aren't auto -confirmed, they are forced 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.040 into the article wizard. Which sounds fun, but 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:07.600 I'm guessing it isn't. It is not a magical helper. 00:08:07.899 --> 00:08:10.300 It is a funnel. It forces you to conform to their 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.360 exact formatting rules, their citation standards, 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:16.079 and their internal logic before a human moderator 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.500 will even look at your draft. Wow. So the barrier 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:22.360 to entry for defining reality is incredibly high. 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:24.360 You have to speak their structural language perfectly. 00:08:24.459 --> 00:08:26.860 You really do. It reminds me of the modern friction 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:30.160 we all deal with every day online. Getting locked 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:32.120 out of an account and being forced through a 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:34.440 labyrinth of automated customer service menus. 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:37.240 Oh, absolutely. Proving you are human over and 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:40.100 over again. Right. The system assumes you are 00:08:40.100 --> 00:08:42.480 a threat until you prove you are a compliant 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:45.120 citizen of their database. That is an excellent 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.940 comparison. The platform values its own security 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:52.440 and structural integrity far more than it values 00:08:52.440 --> 00:08:54.620 your immediate contribution. Here's where it 00:08:54.620 --> 00:08:56.629 gets really interesting though. What if someone 00:08:56.629 --> 00:08:59.889 actually did all of that? You mean jump through 00:08:59.889 --> 00:09:02.350 all the hoops? Yeah, what if a dedicated user 00:09:02.350 --> 00:09:05.129 sought out the article wizard, leveled up their 00:09:05.129 --> 00:09:07.710 account, became auto -confirmed, and successfully 00:09:07.710 --> 00:09:10.409 published the What I Eat in a Day videos page? 00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:13.350 But we still can't see it. This is where the 00:09:13.350 --> 00:09:16.669 empty page becomes almost ominous. Under a heading 00:09:16.669 --> 00:09:19.710 titled Other Reasons This Message May Be Displayed, 00:09:19.789 --> 00:09:22.190 it provides a list of technical and administrative 00:09:22.190 --> 00:09:24.960 excuses for the void. The first thing it suggests 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.019 is that there might simply be a delay in updating 00:09:28.019 --> 00:09:32.100 the database, and it advises the user to wait 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:35.600 a few minutes or try the purge function. I have 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.100 to admit, I have absolutely no idea what a purge 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:40.860 function is. It sounds incredibly aggressive, 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:42.980 like something out of a sci -fi movie. It does 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:46.120 sound dramatic, but it points to a fascinating 00:09:46.120 --> 00:09:49.440 piece of unseen internet infrastructure. Let's 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.059 break down how a massive site like this actually 00:09:52.059 --> 00:09:55.059 operates. OK, late on me. When you request a 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:57.700 web page, a server has to build it from scratch. 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:00.799 It queries the database for the text. It fetches 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.659 the images. It loads the formatting. Sounds like 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:06.860 a lot of work for one page. It is. So if a million 00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:09.679 people ask for that same page the exact same 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:11.899 second, the servers would literally melt down 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:13.960 under the computational load. So how do they 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:16.320 survive that kind of traffic? They use a caching 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.940 layer. Think of it like taking a Polaroid picture 00:10:18.940 --> 00:10:21.220 of the fully assembled web page. Oh, OK, like 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:23.720 a snapshot. Exactly. Instead of building the 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:26.039 page from scratch a million times, the server 00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.240 just hands out copies of the Polaroid. It requires 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.639 almost zero computational power. OK, that makes 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:32.299 a lot of sense. So where does the purge come 00:10:32.299 --> 00:10:35.139 in? A cache delay happens when the underlying 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:38.159 database has been updated, like someone just 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:40.620 published the new article. But the system is 00:10:40.620 --> 00:10:42.899 still handing out the old Polaroid of an empty 00:10:42.899 --> 00:10:46.419 page. Oh. So the purge function is a manual command 00:10:46.419 --> 00:10:48.580 that forces the server to throw away the old 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:51.620 Polaroid, query the database, and take a brand 00:10:51.620 --> 00:10:54.559 new snapshot of the current reality. Wow. So 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:56.360 the article might actually be alive and well, 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:59.039 just hiding behind an outdated snapshot of nothingness. 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:01.940 Precisely. But the technical excuses don't stop 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:04.419 there. The page also warns that search titles 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:06.899 are case -sensitive except for the first character. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.970 Oh, I saw that. It suggests you might need to 00:11:09.970 --> 00:11:12.450 check for alternative capitalizations or see 00:11:12.450 --> 00:11:14.730 if someone created a redirect. Which is incredibly 00:11:14.730 --> 00:11:16.610 pedantic. Right. It's like we might have the 00:11:16.610 --> 00:11:18.870 sum of human knowledge, but only if you capitalize 00:11:18.870 --> 00:11:21.529 the third letter correctly. It is a stark reminder 00:11:21.529 --> 00:11:24.230 that computers do not understand context or nuance. 00:11:24.470 --> 00:11:27.649 They understand exact string matches. But the 00:11:27.649 --> 00:11:30.370 final reason provided on this empty page. Yeah. 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:32.490 This is the one that really got me. It says if 00:11:32.490 --> 00:11:34.769 the page has been deleted, check the deletion 00:11:34.769 --> 00:11:38.129 log and see why was the page I created deleted. 00:11:38.299 --> 00:11:41.159 The deletion log. Yeah. This suddenly doesn't 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:43.200 feel like a helpful encyclopedia anymore. It 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:45.779 feels like a redacted government file. Check 00:11:45.779 --> 00:11:47.879 the deletion log. It carries a lot of weight, 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:51.559 doesn't it? It strongly implies that what I eat 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:54.639 in a day videos might have existed. Someone might 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:56.960 have poured their heart into researching it, 00:11:57.220 --> 00:11:59.820 passed the wizard, earned their auto -confirmed 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:03.279 status, and then... A governing body actively 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:05.899 erased it. It's entirely possible. The philosophical 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:07.879 weight of having the question, why was the page 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:11.480 I created deleted, hyperlinked on a blank screen, 00:12:11.960 --> 00:12:14.450 just I don't know, heartbreaking. It forces us 00:12:14.450 --> 00:12:16.750 to confront a very uncomfortable truth about 00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:19.830 the impermanence of digital data and the intense 00:12:19.830 --> 00:12:21.909 subjectivity of the historical record. Because 00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:23.730 we kind of assume everything online is forever. 00:12:23.870 --> 00:12:26.210 We do. We have this collective delusion that 00:12:26.210 --> 00:12:28.330 the Internet is an infinite hard drive where 00:12:28.330 --> 00:12:30.990 everything lives permanently. But this single 00:12:30.990 --> 00:12:33.909 line of text shatters that. It reminds us that 00:12:33.909 --> 00:12:37.070 there is an active ongoing judgment by moderators 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:39.889 determining what is worthy of preservation and 00:12:39.889 --> 00:12:42.460 what is garbage. But again, someone has to take 00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:44.220 out the trash, right? Like if I make a page about 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:46.159 my pet hamster, it doesn't belong in a global 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.340 encyclopedia. Certainly. Blatant spam or self 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:52.200 -promotion is an easy call. But the deletion 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.019 log isn't just a trash can, it is a battleground. 00:12:55.139 --> 00:12:58.679 A battleground? Yes. There are massive historical 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:01.480 wars fought on these platforms over a concept 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:04.590 known as notability. Okay, who decides what is 00:13:04.590 --> 00:13:07.090 notable? Exactly the issue. Who decides if a 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:09.889 massive cultural trend like what I eat in a day 00:13:09.889 --> 00:13:12.710 videos which has billions of views drive entire 00:13:12.710 --> 00:13:14.870 industries and shapes how a generation views 00:13:14.870 --> 00:13:18.309 food and diet is notable enough for the permanent 00:13:18.309 --> 00:13:21.289 record? So a topic of massive sociological importance 00:13:21.289 --> 00:13:24.330 could be actively weighed judged as unencyclopedic 00:13:24.330 --> 00:13:26.450 by a few gatekeepers with the right administrative 00:13:26.450 --> 00:13:29.190 permissions and purged into the ether. Exactly. 00:13:29.470 --> 00:13:32.190 The deletion log is a graveyard of rejected human 00:13:32.190 --> 00:13:34.960 culture. It forces us to ask, who is writing 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:37.960 the rules of history? Man, that is intense. A 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:40.320 cultural movement might be defining the Veitgeist, 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.759 but if it doesn't fit the rigid structural criteria 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:47.559 of this specific database, it is wiped from their 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:49.960 reality. The platform is dictating that if it 00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:52.539 cannot be formatted properly, it does not exist. 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:55.059 It's wild to think about. You search for a reflection 00:13:55.059 --> 00:13:57.820 of the modern culture you live in, and the platform 00:13:57.820 --> 00:13:59.820 hands you a blank page and says, no, that doesn't 00:13:59.820 --> 00:14:02.190 count. Check the log. But the architecture of 00:14:02.190 --> 00:14:05.309 this empty page offers you one last lifeline. 00:14:05.970 --> 00:14:07.990 Before you leave the digital room in defeat, 00:14:08.309 --> 00:14:11.000 it points you toward a back door. The epistemological 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.080 scavenger hunt. Yes. The text at the bottom of 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.019 the void says, look for what I eat in a day videos 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:18.679 on one of Wikipedia's sister projects. Right. 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:21.820 And then it provides this incredibly exhaustive, 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:25.139 rigid list of alternative dimensions where your 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:27.139 query might be allowed to live. It essentially 00:14:27.139 --> 00:14:29.700 takes the entire chaotic spectrum of human knowledge 00:14:29.700 --> 00:14:33.679 and partitions it into 10 distinct isolated categories. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:35.960 I have to list these out because visualizing 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.320 our topic fitting into some of these boxes is 00:14:38.350 --> 00:14:40.909 to your comedy. Please do. Okay, so it suggests 00:14:40.909 --> 00:14:43.409 looking in Wiktionary, which is the Wiktionary. 00:14:43.690 --> 00:14:46.830 Wikibooks for textbooks. Wiki for quotations. 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:49.690 Wikisource the library. Still going. Oh, there's 00:14:49.690 --> 00:14:53.269 more. Wikiversity for learning resources. Commons 00:14:53.269 --> 00:14:57.149 for media. Wikinews as a news source. Wikidata, 00:14:57.269 --> 00:15:00.309 the linked database. And my absolute favorites, 00:15:00.870 --> 00:15:04.090 Wikivoyage, the travel guide, and Wikispecies, 00:15:04.330 --> 00:15:06.830 the species directory. It is quite the spread 00:15:06.830 --> 00:15:08.970 of options. I am just picturing myself desperately 00:15:08.970 --> 00:15:12.250 trying to find what I eat in a day videos classified 00:15:12.250 --> 00:15:15.090 as a new biological organism in the WikiSpecies 00:15:15.090 --> 00:15:17.190 directory. This is a funny image. Or logging 00:15:17.190 --> 00:15:19.750 into WikiVoyage to see if a diet vlog is considered 00:15:19.750 --> 00:15:22.769 a valid vacation destination. It is so deeply 00:15:22.769 --> 00:15:25.169 mechanical. The system clearly has no idea what 00:15:25.169 --> 00:15:27.149 you are actually searching for. It just aggressively 00:15:27.149 --> 00:15:29.330 throws you against the walls of its categorical 00:15:29.330 --> 00:15:32.669 boxes. So what does this all mean? Why give me 00:15:32.669 --> 00:15:35.029 these specific options? Well, if we connect this 00:15:35.029 --> 00:15:37.549 to the bigger picture, to understand why it does 00:15:37.549 --> 00:15:40.250 this, we have to look at the philosophy of early 00:15:40.250 --> 00:15:42.789 Internet database design. Why can't a, quote, 00:15:43.169 --> 00:15:45.590 a biological species and a travel itinerary live 00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:47.840 in the same database? I'm assuming it has to 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:50.179 do with how the information is structured. Exactly. 00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:52.980 It comes down to database schemas. Relational 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:56.120 databases get bogged down and break if you mix 00:15:56.120 --> 00:15:58.659 fundamentally different data types. Because they 00:15:58.659 --> 00:16:01.500 need different fields. Right. A biological species 00:16:01.500 --> 00:16:04.559 entry requires highly specific relational fields. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:09.620 Kingdom, phylum, class, order. A quotation requires 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:13.460 completely different fields. Author, date, publication, 00:16:14.019 --> 00:16:16.179 context. Oh, I see. If you shove them all into 00:16:16.179 --> 00:16:18.679 one massive table, the system collapses under 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:21.220 the semantic confusion. So the early internet 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:23.970 architects decided to just build completely separate 00:16:23.970 --> 00:16:26.690 houses for different types of data. Yes, they 00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:28.830 partitioned knowledge to protect the servers. 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:32.009 But the result, decades later, is this incredibly 00:16:32.009 --> 00:16:34.750 rigid taxonomy. And it forces the user into that 00:16:34.750 --> 00:16:37.690 taxonomy. Exactly. By offering you these absurd 00:16:37.690 --> 00:16:40.789 alternatives, the void is forcing you, the user, 00:16:40.909 --> 00:16:43.850 to fundamentally question what category of reality 00:16:43.850 --> 00:16:46.450 your query actually belongs to. It's like trying 00:16:46.450 --> 00:16:49.559 to input a modern smartphone. into a 19th century 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:52.379 Dewey decimal system in a physical library. It's 00:16:52.379 --> 00:16:54.179 a great way to think about it. The smartphone 00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:57.039 has tremendous value and exists in reality, but 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.899 the Victorian filing rules simply cannot comprehend 00:16:59.899 --> 00:17:03.330 what it is. It is a what I eat in a day. video, 00:17:03.850 --> 00:17:05.710 a piece of media to be stored in the Commons. 00:17:06.329 --> 00:17:09.089 Is it a linguistic trend for the Wiktionary? 00:17:09.430 --> 00:17:12.250 Is it a sociological learning resource for Wikiversity? 00:17:12.470 --> 00:17:15.369 Or is it news? The platform rejects the topic 00:17:15.369 --> 00:17:18.109 from the main encyclopedia but says perhaps it 00:17:18.109 --> 00:17:20.230 fits perfectly into one of these other highly 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:23.670 specific boxes. It exposes how inflexible digital 00:17:23.670 --> 00:17:26.599 taxonomy really is. It really does. Things that 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:29.319 are fluid, highly cultural, or purely aesthetic 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.400 struggle to find a home in a system that demands 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.119 stripped black and white classification. We are 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:37.740 trying to shove a chaotic moving target of internet 00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:40.400 culture into filing cabinets designed by a mechanical 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.220 algorithm. Exactly. Please place your viral TikTok 00:17:43.220 --> 00:17:45.799 trend in the species directory or the quotation 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.809 ledger. It's completely absurd, but it is the 00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:50.849 only architecture we have. And we have to remember 00:17:50.849 --> 00:17:53.430 that this architecture dictates how future generations 00:17:53.430 --> 00:17:56.549 will find or entirely fail to find information 00:17:56.549 --> 00:18:00.630 about us. Wow. We are leaving behind a historical 00:18:00.630 --> 00:18:03.789 record that is defined more by its filing rules 00:18:03.789 --> 00:18:06.670 than its actual human context. Precisely. This 00:18:06.670 --> 00:18:09.309 has been an absolute trip. We started out with 00:18:09.309 --> 00:18:12.339 what was essentially a digital dead end. an article 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:15.099 not found page. An absolute void. And instead 00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:17.000 of finding out what internet influencers eat 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.940 for breakfast, we uncovered the hidden scaffolding 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:22.720 of the internet's most vital information repository. 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:25.720 We stepped into the void and found out exactly 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:28.720 how it is built. We analyzed the aesthetic priorities, 00:18:28.940 --> 00:18:31.559 the adjustable lighting and birthday mode toggles 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:33.319 that are designed to keep us comfortable and 00:18:33.319 --> 00:18:35.599 trusting even when we are handed nothing. We 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.279 met the gatekeepers and realized that contributing 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:41.500 to the permanent record requires passing an article 00:18:41.500 --> 00:18:44.380 wizard. Navigating cash delays. Right. And earning 00:18:44.380 --> 00:18:46.460 an auto -confirmed status to prove we aren't 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:49.180 malicious bots. We explored the digital graveyard 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:52.400 of the deletion log, recognizing that an absence 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.680 of information is rarely an accident. It is often 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:58.420 the result of an active, highly subjective judgment 00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:01.180 call about what deserved to be remembered. And 00:19:01.180 --> 00:19:03.319 finally, we were sent on a mechanical scavenger 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:05.880 hunt through the sister projects, forced to ask 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:08.539 whether a modern blog is a biological species, 00:19:08.980 --> 00:19:11.859 a travel destination, or a textbook, simply because 00:19:11.859 --> 00:19:14.759 the database demands a category. It entirely 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:17.400 transforms how you view the platform. The empty 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:20.059 space is just as engineered as the articles themselves. 00:19:20.180 --> 00:19:22.799 It really does. And for you listening, I want 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:25.000 you to take this with you. The next time you 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:27.460 are searching for something online, whether you 00:19:27.460 --> 00:19:29.619 are prepping for a meeting, doing research for 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:31.500 school, or just diving down a rabbit hole out 00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:34.920 of sheer curiosity. And you hit a dead end, a 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:38.339 404 error, or an article not found page. Don't 00:19:38.339 --> 00:19:40.440 just immediately close the tab. Take a second. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:42.380 Look at the architecture of the empty space. 00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.279 Look at the menus, the bureaucratic rules, the 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:47.759 suggested redirects. Because the way a complex 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:50.380 system handles absence tells you absolutely everything 00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:52.619 you need to know about how it manages presence. 00:19:53.369 --> 00:19:56.329 The rules of the void define the shape of reality. 00:19:56.450 --> 00:19:59.670 Perfectly said. Exactly. Which leaves us with 00:19:59.670 --> 00:20:02.410 one final thought to mull over. If a platform 00:20:02.410 --> 00:20:05.450 has the unprecedented power to define the strict 00:20:05.450 --> 00:20:08.549 rules of creation, forcing you through wizards, 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.430 maintaining hidden deletion logs that erase cultural 00:20:11.430 --> 00:20:14.730 history, and dictating exactly which sister projects 00:20:14.730 --> 00:20:17.980 are valid categories of existence, who actually 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:19.619 controls the boundaries of what you're allowed 00:20:19.619 --> 00:20:21.960 to know. That is the big question. If the digital 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:23.980 library shelf is empty, is it because the book 00:20:23.980 --> 00:20:26.539 was never written? Or because a system designed 00:20:26.539 --> 00:20:28.759 to protect its own architecture decided it simply 00:20:28.759 --> 00:20:29.380 didn't belong?