I wrote this essay to capture how I feel about the current state of the internet and share a potential solution.
The tl;dr is I'm saddened and scared in equal measure by the rise of bots, and I think we need to do something new in order to preserve any vestige of human-to-human digital communication.
My proposal is that we create invite-only networks where every account traces back through a chain of human trust. If a bot gets in, you prune the branch: remove it and every account it invited. The threat of losing your account (and your invitees losing theirs) creates real social accountability and makes moderation at scale practical.
There are kinks with the idea of course like the risk of false flags, witch hunts, and slow growth, but AI detection and CAPTCHAS are in a losing arms race with LLMs.
“The internet is dead” feels emotionally true if you only look at algorithmic feeds full of AI sludge and engagement bait. But I think that’s mistaking the loudest layer of the web for the whole thing.
The internet isn’t dead, the human parts just aren’t concentrated on a few megaplatforms anymore. They’re scattered across personal blogs, niche communities, indie sites, and small networks that don’t optimize for infinite scale. The web feels worse because the default surfaces are worse, not because humans left.
Calling it dead risks turning a discoverability problem into a nihilistic one. The interesting work is figuring out how to surface and grow the human corners, not declaring the whole system a loss.
You know this to be true. You can feel it every time you open an app.
Apps and their related platforms are not the internet. The internet works almost like it did decades ago, just faster and more resilient.
Some of the platforms on the internet may feel fake however. When platforms get big they get infiltrated by people that wish to impose their grift, beliefs and cultures on the people using said platforms. These people automate their efforts via bots and try to start conversations between people and bots. This is why we can't have nice things. I think it is that simple.
Oh and the internet itself is far from dead. If anything it is faster and more stable than ever. The internet, not platforms. Platforms can be replaced or rendered a ghost town. Motivate those that run your platforms to block all the bots even if it means the platform may feel less active. Not just block but get creative and punish the botters.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 19.4 ms ] threadThe tl;dr is I'm saddened and scared in equal measure by the rise of bots, and I think we need to do something new in order to preserve any vestige of human-to-human digital communication.
My proposal is that we create invite-only networks where every account traces back through a chain of human trust. If a bot gets in, you prune the branch: remove it and every account it invited. The threat of losing your account (and your invitees losing theirs) creates real social accountability and makes moderation at scale practical.
There are kinks with the idea of course like the risk of false flags, witch hunts, and slow growth, but AI detection and CAPTCHAS are in a losing arms race with LLMs.
The internet isn’t dead, the human parts just aren’t concentrated on a few megaplatforms anymore. They’re scattered across personal blogs, niche communities, indie sites, and small networks that don’t optimize for infinite scale. The web feels worse because the default surfaces are worse, not because humans left.
Calling it dead risks turning a discoverability problem into a nihilistic one. The interesting work is figuring out how to surface and grow the human corners, not declaring the whole system a loss.
I wrote a short piece expanding on this idea: https://cauenapier.com/blog/the-internet-is-not-quite-dead/
Apps and their related platforms are not the internet. The internet works almost like it did decades ago, just faster and more resilient.
Some of the platforms on the internet may feel fake however. When platforms get big they get infiltrated by people that wish to impose their grift, beliefs and cultures on the people using said platforms. These people automate their efforts via bots and try to start conversations between people and bots. This is why we can't have nice things. I think it is that simple.
Oh and the internet itself is far from dead. If anything it is faster and more stable than ever. The internet, not platforms. Platforms can be replaced or rendered a ghost town. Motivate those that run your platforms to block all the bots even if it means the platform may feel less active. Not just block but get creative and punish the botters.