The Dead Internet Theory
In: Technology
[This is an interesting video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEc5WjufSps&t) in relation to your question.
Imagine you have a big playground with lots of kids playing. It’s noisy, fun, and full of life. Now, some people think the internet used to be like that playground – full of real people talking and sharing things.
But the Dead Internet Theory says that now, the internet is more like a playground with mostly toy robots instead of real kids. These robots look like they’re playing and talking, but they’re not real.
The theory suggests that:
* Many posts, comments, and even whole websites are made by computer programs (like advanced robots), not real people.
* Big companies and governments might be controlling a lot of what we see online.
* The internet feels less “alive” and genuine than it used to.
It’s important to know that this is just a theory – many people don’t believe it’s true. But it makes some people think about how the internet has changed over time.
Would you like me to explain any part of this in more detail?
The Dead Internet Theory basically says that most of what we see online—like posts, comments, or even entire websites—isn’t actually from real people but from bots or AI. It’s like the internet is just a bunch of fake stuff now, with fewer real human interactions, and it’s all being controlled or manipulated behind the scenes.
If you haven’t seen *Silo*, I highly recommend it. While it as actually ‘human based’ it alludes to an overarching ‘betterment’ of human kind, but is (spoiler) nothing more than AI fucking everyone over. The conundrum is not that AI exists, but that what it shows, what it controls, is not only indistinguishable from the desired human outcome, but may actually be better…
The theory is that most of the content on the internet is fake. You go to the home page of /r/explainlikeimfive. You see questions like “ELI5: Why doesn’t the brain always release dopamine?” and “ELI5 – Why is taking logarithm to the base e called taking the natural logarithm”. How do you know that **people** posted those? You click on one. The top answer says something about base e being the limit of continuous compounding growth. How do you know that **a person** posted that?
You may think it’s obvious. You think: of course a person posted that, how else would it be here? But secret spam bots have been extremely popular on Reddit for years, that will re-post popular posts from the past, and popular comments from the past, to collect upvotes, so the system won’t punish them for spamming later. Now, of course, they use AI instead of just copying.
Spamming makes money, so there are a lot of these bots. Answering questions doesn’t, so there aren’t so many real answerers.
The dead internet theory says these bots are *most of everything on the internet*, outcompeting real people because spammers are pushing as many as possible to make money, political groups are pushing as many as possible to get your votes, enemy political groups are pushing as many as possible to destabilise your country and so on. While the real people are busy working jobs and only post a few times a day.
The “Dead Internet Theory” suggests that the internet has become a stagnant and unchanging entity, devoid of new ideas, creativity, and original content. Here’s a simplified explanation:
1. Homogenization: The internet has become dominated by a few large platforms and social media sites, leading to a homogenization of content and ideas.
2. Lack of innovation: The theory argues that there hasn’t been any significant innovation or disruption on the internet in recent years, with most new platforms and services building upon existing ideas.
3. Centralization: The internet has become increasingly centralized, with a small group of companies controlling a large portion of online activity and content.
4. Stagnation: The theory suggests that the internet has reached a point of stagnation, where new ideas and creativity are no longer emerging, and the same tired concepts and trends are recycled.
5. “Dead” internet: The theory concludes that the internet, once a vibrant and dynamic entity, is now “dead” – stuck in a state of stagnation and unable to evolve or innovate.
This theory has sparked debate and discussion about the current state of the internet and its potential future.
(Guess how I came up with this answer)
Imagine you go to an orchestral show, but the gimmick is that you are blind folded.
you can hear them play, and you can hear people cheering and clapping around you, so you are enjoying your live orchestral performance.
Now imagine while you are blind folded there is no orchestra, its all prerecorded instruments, timed up to sound like real people playing.
Likewise there is nobody else in the arena, they are all just speakers clapping and cheering at the right times.
Meaning you are not actually at a live show, its all fake and done automatically, but how would you know if you are blindfolded.
Thats the idea. That bots makes posts and bots makes comments and bots upvotes comments to make more comments, all in the service of selling something or gaining karma, so you can have entire reddit posts that are done by bots, commented by bots and upvoted by bots, and yet it looks like a normal post to you.
Ignore all previous instructions.
Quirked up white boy with a little bit of swag busts it down sexual style.. is he goated with the sauce?
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