Dwarkesh Patel

In the 18th century, they had newspapers.

The newspapers were reporting news.

The newspapers don't quite say the same thing as each other.

And so then the problem is, how do we know who to trust?

So the Gentleman's Magazine was developed, and every week they would publish a roundup of that week's news saying what each newspaper said about it and where they contradicted each other and analyzing who's right and wrong.

It was the fact-checking.

This is the first magazine.

It invented the word magazine being used in this context.

And it was an intellectual response to the fake news problem of how do we reconcile what happens with newspapers.

So many iterations of, you know, they invent the printing press.

Then they invent the pamphlet.

Then they invent the newspaper.

Then they invent the magazine to cope with the newspaper.

The newspaper is invented to cope with the pamphlet because you don't know whether to trust the scandalous tale of the doctor from Padua and how he murdered his wife.

Is he real?

We don't know.

But if somebody publishes a newspaper that serially prints news every week, they have a reputation.

They have to be respectable.

You're not going to subscribe to them if you catch them printing nonsense.

So the –