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Alive internet theory

alivetheory.net

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Re: Alive internet theory

#71

Post by nickpsecurity »

abetusk wrote: post #68

I've felt that people who espouse the dead internet theory have a much different experience of the internet than I do. For me, browsing the web, reading articles, watching YouTube videos, consuming Twitter/X/Bsky/Mastodon feeds, is all very active. There's interesting information that I engage with. I learn new things. I get to experience new art forms that I didn't think existed. I think for people who gravitate to…

What sites they're using is a big part of it. My sites are content from people I know, aggregators like HN that pool together quality content, educational resources, sub-Reddits, and entertainment. The entertainment can be fake and I don't really care if it's good. The sub-Reddits vary considerably in content quality. So, my sites are mostly living people.

It's also how we spend our time. Popular culture encourages people to only do it through devices. I spend most of my time away from devices or only passively using them (eg listening). I mostly focus on people all day at two jobs. My intuition is built on human experiences. There's a lot of variety in that in our area. On specific topics, they mostly converge towards talking points due to media, Hollywood, educational system, views in their physical area, and their religion. Maybe in that order.

Re: Alive internet theory

#72

Post by g8oz »

deaux wrote: post #51
g8oz wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your comment need an AI disclaimer? The tone reeks of it.

Absolutely not AI unless they manually edited it, in which case it isn't AI in a meaningful way. Need to tune your AIdar.

I dunno, the combination of the "CLICK", the bullet points and tone of sweeping boosterism is a tell.

Re: Alive internet theory

#73

Post by klondike_klive »

weitendorf wrote: post #54
plastic-enjoyer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Problem: the Internet is dangerous now. What you put in "your space" might get you fired, deported, etc. > Posting anything is a risk. What benefit do you get from it - does it outweigh the risk? In the past, both the actual risk and the perceived risk were lower. Yes, because people post openly their hot takes to the whole world. Their internet personality is completely tied to their real-world personality. One of…

Every new generation reinvents itself to fix what it sees wrong with the ones before it. But they can’t undo what already happened. The Internet is too deeply embedded in our lives now and too useful for that to change. And if bad actors insist on polluting the commons/letting AI run loose on it the only way to get any kind of accountability is for there to be identity mechanisms whenever you’re interacting with peop…

I don't share your optimism but I'm glad of it!

Re: Alive internet theory

#74

Post by cookiengineer »

talkingtab wrote: post #20

Somehow, reading the comments made something CLICK for me about how passive and reactive we have all become in this culture. 1. The issue is real. Not sure it is articulated but I related to live vs dead internet. 2. The comments (only 10 as of now) are mostly critiques. (no javascript, call to action, style, theory is wrong) The CLICK: "Critiques kill". You want a live internet? Don't critique. If you want a no java…

I think that the bot/agent problem is so huge that humans need a separate space where they can discuss in peace. No idea how to achieve that, or whether the gemini and gopher radicalists where right all along. But the effect of botnets for hire, and now LLM proxies for hire is the result of surveillance capitalism, where too greedy and immoral players in the game have a strategical advantage against the ones respecting their ethical boundaries.

However, coming back to the original problem: MCP is killing the human parts of the internet. The "loud crowd" isn't radicalized humans anymore, it's bots for the most part.

Maybe we need an artificially slower version of the internet, where people are forced to write thoughtful letters (or whatever the quintessence of letters used to be) without the possibility to engage in fast-lived influencer-like content? Dunno, to be honest, at this point this is very hard to tell.

Re: Alive internet theory

#76

Post by phs318u »

joshtbradley wrote: post #50
talkingtab wrote: post #20

Somehow, reading the comments made something CLICK for me about how passive and reactive we have all become in this culture. 1. The issue is real. Not sure it is articulated but I related to live vs dead internet. 2. The comments (only 10 as of now) are mostly critiques. (no javascript, call to action, style, theory is wrong) The CLICK: "Critiques kill". You want a live internet? Don't critique. If you want a no java…

I’m glad you experienced the CLICK, I did too when GPT-3 released. The comment section was full of snarky, cynical, dismissive remarks with hundreds of likes. It smelled like Reddit but it was HN. Cynicism is a dangerous instinct that captures many people. It’s easy, it’s rewarding, and it offers the psychological safety of unity. But it’s missing a key component. Hope. I have no problem with critiques if they are ac…

> We refuse to succumb to the lazy ignorant masses.

Says the person who just made a lazy generalisation and lumping in a whole raft of nuanced positions into one, conveniently labelled, oppositional lump.

Re: Alive internet theory

#77

Post by blargey »

talkingtab wrote: post #20

Somehow, reading the comments made something CLICK for me about how passive and reactive we have all become in this culture. 1. The issue is real. Not sure it is articulated but I related to live vs dead internet. 2. The comments (only 10 as of now) are mostly critiques. (no javascript, call to action, style, theory is wrong) The CLICK: "Critiques kill". You want a live internet? Don't critique. If you want a no java…

Touches on the broader problem - that the less thought and care put into a comment, the more likely it is to be posted on the internet. Not sure what can be done about statistics.

Re: Alive internet theory

#79

Post by koolala »

g8oz wrote: post #72
deaux wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not AI unless they manually edited it, in which case it isn't AI in a meaningful way. Need to tune your AIdar.

I dunno, the combination of the "CLICK", the bullet points and tone of sweeping boosterism is a tell.

yeah, it would be too ironic if so tho

Re: Alive internet theory

#80

Post by alfiedotwtf »

talkingtab wrote: post #20

Somehow, reading the comments made something CLICK for me about how passive and reactive we have all become in this culture. 1. The issue is real. Not sure it is articulated but I related to live vs dead internet. 2. The comments (only 10 as of now) are mostly critiques. (no javascript, call to action, style, theory is wrong) The CLICK: "Critiques kill". You want a live internet? Don't critique. If you want a no java…

> The "follower" internet has somehow instilled the notion that making a comment is the same as "doing something". It is not.

Nice, that completely defines how I felt about Twitter when I decided to delete my account.

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