文章探讨了“死互联网理论”，该理论认为自2016或2017年以来，互联网主要由机器人活动和算法生成的内容组成，旨在控制人群并减少人类的有机活动。文章提出了一个更具体的观点，即在某些特定的在线辩论中，超过一半的参与者可能是伪装成人类的机器人。这种现象引发了对信息来源可信度的担忧，以及在充斥着不可靠信息的世界中，如何有效行动和做出明智决策的疑问。文章呼吁思考如何应对这种挑战，并希望读者能提供相关研究或原创见解。

🤖 “死互联网理论”认为，互联网充斥着机器人和算法生成内容，而非真实人类活动，其目的是控制人群。

🤔 作者提出“我的死互联网理论”，即在特定在线辩论中，超过一半的参与者可能是伪装成人类的机器人，引发对网络真实性的担忧。

🧐 文章质疑在信息来源不可靠的情况下，如何信任所接收的信息，如何有效行动，并如何在政治和经济等复杂领域做出明智决策。

🌍 文章呼吁对这种现象进行深入思考，并希望读者提供相关研究或原创见解，共同探索应对策略。

Published on January 27, 2025 4:47 PM GMT

The "Dead Internet Theory" (DIT) is defined by Wikipedia as follows:

The dead Internet theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet since 2016 or 2017 has consisted mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation to control the population and minimize organic human activity.

The DIT needs not be completely true in order for it to be a concern. Even if the DIT is just partially true, that is still bad. The worry is, of course, that these bots are not merely friendly-but-hapless C3POs but tools used by some powerful persons, corporations, or governments. I think it is obvious that if someone is willing to go to these lengths to deceive the general public, they probably do not have the interests of the general public at heart.

In the following, I will use the term "my DIT" to refer to the claim that:

In some specific non-trivial contexts, on average more than half of the participants in online debate who pose as distinct human beings are actually bots.

Let us suppose that we have one or more contexts for which we believe that my DIT is true - that certain areas of online debate are dominated by malicious bots. How can we act on this? What are the epistemological and pragmatic implications?

I am not able to fully validate all the information I read. If I am to form a picture of the world - and especially the complex "social world" of politics and economics, I must rely on other people who know more than I. How can I navigate such a landscape of untrustworthy sources? How can I be an effective altruist when I cannot trust my "senses" to tell me what the world looks like?

I would be grateful if you can point me to some existing articles on the topic, but original thoughts are also welcome.

Discuss