All language subtitles for Dark Net - 01x06 - Rewire.WEBRip.English.HI.C.orig.Addic7ed.com

[narrator]
The Web transforms us.

We become data...

code...

uploading our very selves...

...to a place
we call the cloud.

But this cloud is grounded
in hardware, a chaos of code.

But with the right tools,

you can find the signal
in the noise.

The thing with porn is

it actually hijacks
our brain reward circuitry.

[Sofyan]
It made me this selfish,

pleasure-seeking bastard,
pretty much.

When I first found it,
it just --

it was like
some kind of a drug, almost.

[Brandt]
What if you could have a pill

that makes you your best self?

[Mercer] Unifiram, Modafinil,
Flmodafinil, Adrafinil...

This one here's Sunifiram.

Pretty much
anything and everything --

you can buy it on the Internet.

[Andy] With the rise
of the Internet,

this population has,
all of a sudden,

found a venue by which they can
interact very successfully.

What we believe is
that people without this

might be wired differently.

Mission accomplished.

Bam! Stamp! Boom.

Message will self-destruct
in 30 seconds.

I better move out of the way
of that boom.

[narrator]
We created the Internet.

[man] He hits the bar
and gets an immediate reward.

[narrator] Now the Internet
is recreating us.

[mouse clicking]

Like rats in a lab,
we keep clicking,

we keep connecting,

we feed the Internet our data,
our desires, our selves,

while it feeds on us...

stimulus, response.

The Internet is an experiment
on our collective brain.

Will it improve us, empower us,

or fry us?

[Sofyan] This is definitely
really exciting,

to finally meet people in person

going through the same struggle
and connecting,

sort of having some common ground.

So that's a first.
It's definitely exciting.

[Alex] And what we're doing is

we're inviting
a few of the users out

to kind of have a really
personal, intimate, small group

in the middle of nowhere.

There's gonna be
no Internet connection.

There's even barely gonna be
any cellphone reception.

Hey, man.

Hi.

Sofyan, right?

Yeah.
Nice to meet you.

[Sofyan] I'm 17.

I guess I could say

I've been addicted
since the age of 9.

I feel like it cheated me

of my youth and so many years
of connection,

of being just alive, pretty much.

I mean, it's just terrible.

[woman moaning]

[Alex] Many of us
have been hooked on porn

since we were little kids --
11 or 12 years old.

We went through puberty on porn,

and we actually learned about
our sexualities from porn.

Growing up, masturbating to
porn is pretty much all I did.

It would go up to
14 times every single day.

I still, to this day,
have a scar on my penis

from doing it a little bit
too vigorously,

a little bit too often.

So I have some battle scars
from my porn addiction.

[Sofyan] I wish somebody
told me why it was bad.

They just said, "Don't do it."

And, as a kid,
it's like saying, "Do it."

So, guys, are you ready
to pitch some tents?

[man] I need to hook this on
to the hoojimagogger, right?

[narrator]
These guys are part of a group

struggling with
Internet porn addiction.

Yeah, so we want
to get to this side,

'cause there's, like, wasps
that like living over there.

Oh, goodie! Wasps.

They're used to connecting with
each other online, anonymously,

but these five guys,
including Sofyan,

are meeting face-to-face for
the first time at Reboot Camp.

[Alex] We are kind of
in the middle of nowhere.

Does anyone here not have
a cellphone signal?

Zero bars, one bar.

One bar!

So, I'm the founder
of a website called NoFap,

which is a porn recovery
community-based website

that offers tools and support

for people who are trying
to quit porn.

I named it "NoFap" because
the phrase "fap"

represents the sound
that masturbation makes

in old comics.

There would be a character
masturbating, and next to it,

there would be, like,
these little phrases,

and it would say,
"Fap, fap, fap, fap, fap!"

Kind of like...

Sounds like that.

I'm gonna take the red one.
It matches my eyes.

The process of abstaining
from porn and masturbation,

or even sex altogether,

we call this "rebooting",
and what we mean is

you're essentially
rebooting your brain

back to default factory settings.

How about we go get some
firewood, get ready for dinner?

[man] All right.
I'll do that.

Sweet.
Let's go.

[narrator] Alex's NoFap
website has over 170,000 users.

Sofyan is one of the youngest,
and has been struggling

with porn addiction
for half his life.

Seriously, there's like
a bunch over there.

[Sofyan] I stumbled across it
around 8 or 9.

I was looking for
Dick's Sporting Goods,

but I just put in "dicks"...

and it came up with, like,
a bunch of women,

and they had
their shirts off and stuff.

[woman moaning]

I started wanking
and then watching porn

and finding more stuff,
and it sort of escalated.

[narrator]
It was Sofyan's first fix.

[Sofyan]
I've seen it get more extreme.

It got hard core.

It totally demolishes, like,

your realistic
expectation for women.

[narrator] We all know how
one click leads to another.

Most of us have seen
some kind of porn online.

It makes up a quarter
of all our online searches,

and every second,
over 28,000 people

are logging on and getting off.

I have an addiction
to pornography.

I have been, like,
addicted to this

for, like, over 10 years.

But it really starts
to fuck with your head.

[narrator] These guys are just
the tip of the iceberg.

Multiple porn recovery sites,
including NoFap,

have surfaced online,

and nearly a million users
have signed on to seek help.

You think
you're rewarding yourself,

but after
that split-second rush

and you snap back to reality,

you remember it was really
a punishment.

[Alex] I think everyone here
probably wants

at least one burger
and one hot dog.

[man] Yeah.

[narrator]
The challenge for Sofyan

and his fellow "Fapstronauts,"
as they call themselves,

is to log off long enough

to reboot their brains
back to normal.

Those look good.

Not bad, not bad.

But what if your goal
was to push your brain

beyond normal default settings
and make it extraordinary?

[Woo] I think
it's a natural human instinct

to always want to strive
to push their own limits.

In Silicon Valley, right,

the edge now is mental performance

as opposed to
sort of physical performance.

And if you use Silicon Valley
as sort of the mental analogue

for professional athletics, right?

These are sort of
professional mental athletes.

[narrator] With mantras like,
"Thrive or get out,"

"Smarter, faster, better,"

and "Work-life balance
is for losers,"

how can you compete
in Silicon Valley?

Michael Brandt and Geoffrey Woo,

two Stanford grads,

are marketing and selling
a solution.

[Woo] Nootropics
are cognitive enhancers.

Cognitive enhancers
are any compounds

that increase
any aspect of cognition,

whether that's creativity,
stamina, mental resilience.

[narrator] In 2014,
they founded an online start-up

that sells nootropics.

Even though these drugs
can be sold legally,

they're not approved by the FDA
as actual mental enhancers.

[Brandt] Nootropics
sometimes gets compared

to drug use in sports.

I think that drug use
in sports is cheating

because it's breaking the rules
of a man-made system that says,

"You can't do drugs."

I think when it comes to being
smarter, there are no rules.

[narrator] The promise
of a better brain

is all over the Internet.

Searches for the term "nootropics"

have increased over 800%
in the past five years.

On Reddit, a growing
collective of brain hackers

are serving as both
scientist and lab rat.

They're sharing thousands
of online conversations

about their experiments
with smart drugs.

And this DIY drug study

offers dealers like
Geoffrey and Michael

the ultimate
in insider information.

But the Internet supply chain
of smart drugs

stretches far beyond
Silicon Valley.

In the swamps of Alabama,
Chris Mercer runs

his new online business
from his kitchen.

[Mercer] I'm trying
to jump into the business.

I don't have a lot
of advertising budget.

I have product, and I'm willing
to give it to you cheaper.

That's the beauty
of capitalism, you know?

This Phenylpiracetam --
this is actually used

by the Russian astronauts
on the space station.

Pretty much, it starts with
researching the compounds.

Adrafinil, Modafinil,
Flmodafinil, Adrafinil...

This one here's Sunifiram.

It's one of the newer
nootropics --

a little more controversial.

Just putting the word
"smart drug" in

and seeing what comes up,

and there's hundreds of them
at this point.

Increases wakefulness,
concentration, focus,

thought process.

Unifiram... Adrafinil,

which is a very popular drug
on Wall Street.

That's also used with pilots
to keep them awake.

[beep]

I buy it, and then I re-sell it
on the Internet.

[narrator]
Chris and other distributors

can get away with
selling these drugs

as pure chemical substances

for research purposes only,

including NSI-189.

This is the last that I have of it

as I'm waiting on another batch.

It actually re-grows

the neurons in your hippocampus.

So it literally grows
your brain and makes it bigger.

So if everything
works out with it,

you're looking at your first
cure for any brain disorder.

[narrator] Chris claims
NSI-189 is a brain cure-all.

Credible scientists do not.

Not yet, anyway.

The drug is undergoing
clinical trials.

But what if a brain disorder

turned out to be something
to cultivate, not cure --

not an impairment,
but an enhancement?

[man] I'm processing
the page from Firefox.

The data is in Chrome.

[Andy] Right.

[narrator] Every employee
in this room has autism.

[Andy] They can persevere
over certain tasks

over long periods of time.

Many people have
a truly gifted memory, okay,

allowing them to retain very
large amounts of information,

ability to see patterns
in data and systems.

[man] Most of our time
is spent sitting,

working at our computers,

which just seems like
the perfect thing for me.

I once heard someone say

everyone in Silicon Valley
is on the spectrum.

[man] Was Steve Jobs thought
to have been on the spectrum?

[Luby] Oh, yeah.
Except that he was too mean.

Aspies are not mean.

Aspies are nice people.

Well, there are exceptions, but...

I know plenty of people
on the spectrum who are mean.

Mean?

[narrator] Andy Aczel
and his wife, Luby,

run The Specialist Guild,

which trains
and gives tech internships

to people on the spectrum.

This is the Android 2.3, which
they also want us to test.

[Andy] If you want to
revolutionize things,

then you need to get people who
are totally different from you.

I think people with autism
fall into that category.

Why don't Justin, Aaron,
and Colin work on that today,

and then Nicholas and you
do the Android app.

[narrator]
Autism is clinically defined

as a brain-development disorder
characterized by difficulty

in social interaction
and communication.

I was using the mobile data,

but I think that might probably
drain the battery faster, so...

[narrator] But advocates

of a growing
neurodiversity movement

believe autistic brains

are a normal variation
of human genes

and have valuable traits
and advantages.

[Andy] From
an intelligence perspective,

they are perfectly capable.

They manifest a very strong
focus and determination

and single-mindedness,
but they find

overall interaction with people
very confusing.

Okay, everybody,
screens down, please,

so you don't get distracted.

It's important for us to
discuss the way that we lie.

And what was a charitable lie?

Nicholas,
give me a charitable lie.

Of course that doesn't
make you look fat.

Yes.

I guess that's a lie

to avoid hurting someone's
feelings or something.

Yes.

Here it says that

we have an easier time
when we're spatially distant.

Yeah.
Yeah.

That's 'cause seeing eyes makes
it really difficult to lie.

Yeah.
Okay.

[Andy] When you are on
an instant chat

or an online forum
or what have you,

there is no body language.

So you're not confused,
and they learn all the tricks

that people use on the Internet
to express their emotions

and what have you --
emoticons, whatever.

[narrator]
Icons in place of emotions,

screens in place of people.

Even so-called neurotypicals

can go a whole day without
interacting with a real person.

No bank teller, no grocery
cashier, no sales attendant.

Virtual office,
virtual friends, virtual sex.

There are even apps that use
your geodata and social media

to help you avoid people
you'd rather not see --

Cloak, Split,

and even one called
Hell is Other People.

[Andy] Your PC showed up.

[Nicholas] Excellent.

Looks like the one
we ordered, so...

Waiting for this for weeks.

You want to take that out?

[Andy] My wife, Luby,
and I have a son

who is on the autism spectrum.

I think we can maybe
take out your hard drive

from your other machine
while it's doing the updates.

Do you want to do that?

Yes, let's do that.

My son, Nicholas,
has very good friends

of many, many years that
he constantly interacts with

on instant messaging or chat.

Oh, yes. My parents
weren't sure about me...

connecting with friends this way,

although now they...

are not as worried.

They understand I'm an adult...

and I can handle it.

I talk with friends online

about being on autism spectrum.

I talk to them about music
or about politics

or about entertainment.

[Andy] Whether or not

the M.I.T. guys purposely
invented the Internet

to be able to talk
to other nerds or not,

the interesting thing about it
is that it's not just for nerds.

It's for everybody, really.

And you can find someone
to connect to.

[narrator]
After their training,

Nicholas and the others
in The Specialist Guild

hope to land
a full-time job in tech.

Across the country,

another young man with autism
has reached that goal.

[Patrick] Hey, everyone.

[man] Hey, Patrick.

[narrator]
Patrick works for SAP,

the third largest
software company in the world.

[Patrick] I may come off as
a little monotone or stiff

even though
I don't intend it to be.

But, first thing,
we meet with George.

First thing, we meet with George.

Understood.

I consider myself
very high-functioning

on the autistic spectrum.

I'm always thinking
of something a mile a minute.

There's just so much
information that's processing.

I can point out certain details

that, you know,
other people would overlook.

Good morning, everyone.

[narrator] If it wasn't for
Jose Velasco,

who heads a job initiative at
SAP for people with autism,

Patrick might still
be at home, unemployed.

Rather than just go through
a résumé and ask you questions

about what you have done,
we're gonna build robots today.

We're gonna have fun.

[Velasco] People with autism
oftentimes have issues

with expressing themselves.

Perhaps they don't have
the ability

to look at people
in the eye, okay,

which is one of what they call
"an interview killer," right?

I'm trying to get him
to turn the right direction.

We're able to learn
more about people

because of what they do
rather than what they say.

It took me all day
to get it to do that much.

It's the little things in life.

I think that if we look at history

and look at the great innovators,

most of them were outliers.

Victory!

Victory!

[narrator] Today,
Patrick is moving out

of his childhood home.

How we making out, buddy?

Good, Dad. Yourself?

Oh, just great.

After living with his parents
for nearly 30 years,

he is able
to get a place of his own.

Does it fit in there okay?

Yep, it fits good.

I am gonna miss
this old place, Dad.

[Patrick] I mean, it's been
the only home I've ever known

for, you know, the longest time.

Mm-hmm. It is.

But it's a great change for you.

You always have my
unconditional love and support.

You know that, right?

Absolutely, Dad.

Thanks so much.
You're welcome.

[Sighs] Is there anything else
we have to move?

[Groans]
I got it, buddy.

[Patrick] I think one thing

that I am
really looking forward to,

once my place is fully set up,

is the fact that I would like
to invite some friends over.

Won't be much longer.

Also, I think, down the road,

I would like to have a girlfriend.

I would like to have someone
that I could be with.

And if that should blossom
into something more

that would lead to marriage,

I'd be perfectly fine with that.

[narrator]
Someone to be with.

That's what these guys
struggling with porn addiction

seem to want, too.

But Sofyan and others fear
they are no longer capable

of real, human relationships.

[Sofyan] Watching porn --
it affected me in a lot of ways

that I didn't even realize,
looking back.

I just thought it was part
of being a teenager.

It made me sort of isolate myself,

and I carried around
this cloud of shame almost.

I couldn't
look people in the eyes.

It's been like five years
since I skipped rocks.

Aw, come on, dude.
[Laughs]

[Alex] You would think
porn addicts would have, like,

really strong arms, right?

[narrator] There is no
diagnostic classification

for Internet pornography
addiction,

because it's too new
and hasn't been studied enough.

But those suffering report
a detachment from real people,

brain fog,
and a desensitized penis --

to the point where

a 17-year-old kid
can't get a hard-on.

[Sofyan] My penis sort of
turned into a turtle.

It just like went into the shell
and wouldn't come out.

Like, it just wouldn't --
I couldn't get an erection,

and then I was like,
"What the hell is going on?"

[narrator]
And it only gets worse.

At some point, vanilla porn,

you know,
digital missionary style,

doesn't offer your brain
the same dopamine rush.

You go looking
for the hard stuff...

and the Internet satisfies.

Sex acts on porn sites

are getting
more extreme and violent,

but at the same time,

the people in porn
are looking more normal.

An analysis of over
40,000 porn actresses

in the past 15 years

reveals the stereotypical
blond, busty porn star

is now competing against
a brunette

with smaller breasts
and larger hips --

just like the girl next door.

I think a lot of it has to do
with pornifying the women

that they see in everyday life.

They want to imagine
their boss or their neighbor

or some girl that they're
too scared to talk to have sex.

[man] Pornography has such
a searing effect, you know?

There's no connection
there anymore with women.

They're basically like
a living masturbation toy.

I just felt like there was
a monster inside of me,

you know, and I didn't want that
monster to be there anymore.

Courting a woman
and all this other stuff --

it's hard, and every girl
is different.

And I would love it
if I could just,

you know, snap my finger
and get what I wanted,

but that's not how it is,
but with porn, it is how it is.

So why not do that?

I mean, there's other parts
of a relationship

you can strive for, but sexually,

I can find anything, sexually,
on the Internet.

I can find it in porn.

[Sofyan]
My rock bottom was just,

like, pretty much every single

negative side effect
you can think about,

and hating myself.

That was probably
the worst part of it.

[man] I hope it's gonna be
my final reboot,

but I'm kind of
a really pessimistic realist,

and I'm going to say
it's probably not.

[Alex]
After my first 30-day reboot,

I went right back to porn.

I was hardwired to it,

and separating my brain
from Internet porn

was the hardest thing
I've ever done.

[narrator] It's one thing
to not watch porn

in the middle of the woods,

but after Reboot Camp is over,
it's back to the real world,

and that means the Internet.

[Alex] All right, guys.
Hands together.

[all] One, two, three --

Fuck porn!

Fuck porn.

All right guys, goodbye.

Thank you so much for coming.

[man]
Yeah, it was great.

Yeah, it was a pleasure
meeting you.

I'm becoming the human
that I was meant to be.

Now I'm going out
and I'm meeting people

and I'm doing my small part
to change the world,

and none of that
would have been possible

if I was still using porn.

You don't know that
I used to skateboard a lot?

No.

I knew about your scooter.

[Laughs]

Yeah, back in middle school...

[narrator] Alex has been
porn-free for over two years,

and is now in
a committed relationship.

[Sofyan] I guess
I've always been craving

sort of like
a deeper human connection.

Never really sat down

and just shared myself
completely with someone

and, like, see
each other's souls sort of.

Sort of metaphorical.

[man] I think we're
the loneliest generation

that this world has ever seen.

[Patrick] Screens have
a time and a place...

...but if we continue to rely
on it too much as a crutch,

it's only going to
hurt us more as a species.

We lose a bit of that humanity.

[narrator]
Tap, click, get your fix.

But when the pleasure fades,
what's left?

A craving for more.

Today I'm on day 6
of what I would guess would be

somewhere around my
45th and final attempt.

I confidently say
this is my final reboot,

and I know, you know,
you can laugh.

Everybody says it -- "All right,
this is the last one, I swear."

[narrator]
10 days after the camping trip,

Sofyan relapsed.

He's trying to quit porn again,

and is on day 5
of his 46th reboot.

♪♪