Doesn't it feel like the world's going a bit insane lately? Tribalism, polarization, culture wars - it seems like every new discussion or world event inevitably turns into an angry internet screaming match between political groups. And some of that online rage is spilling over into the real world too, tearing us apart in a time when we need to come together to figure out how to solve big global issues.

But why is this happening? Is it because the world really IS falling apart, or is it more that our perception of it is being twisted, which is making us go crazy in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy? Or is it something else entirely?

This short film explores these questions, and the effect that competitive economic forces are having on our media industry in a post-internet world. In other words: how do we turn the digital attention economy from a lose-lose war, into a win-win game?

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This video is part of a series on game theory, civilizational risk, and Moloch: the God of unhealthy competition. It is the bad guy of humanity’s story, and time is running out for us to figure out how to defeat it.

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More information on Moloch: Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander