Escape the Matrix

The Internet is the uncanniest valley. Don't get trapped there.

IN YOUTUBE’S EARLIEST days, when people were still blowing up Diet Coke with Mentos, responses to the site’s curious videos tended to fall into two categories: astonishment and skepticism. First came the huzzahs. “Better than Hendrix!” one commenter wrote in 2006, praising a shred guitar solo that was YouTube’s most-discussed video for a time. The comme…