Riddle Me This: When Is a Lie Not a Lie?
When the Lie Is a
Conspiracy Theory, Like the Dead Internet Theory.
Of all the euphemisms spouted out by various media pundits that only serve to obfuscate the truth, few of these obstacles to clear thinking are as ubiquitous as is the phrase "Conspiracy Theory." Many may think the term originates with the counter-arguments to the explanations of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963. It has been said that phrase originates from 1967 as the CIA meant to discredit those who disagreed with the Warren Commission findings that Lee Harvey was the lone gunman that killed President Kennedy.
The term does, however, have a long history in the lexicon of American English. The first known use of the phrase "conspiracy theory," came in the form of a Letter to the Editor, penned by one Mr. Charles Astor Bristed, and published in The New York Times, January 11, 1863. Bristed opined that the American Civil War was the work of a cabal of British aristocrats. And there you have it. Unseen elites, working secretively behind the scenes, are the cause one calamity or another. Thus, is the stuff of conspiracies that have resonated within the American consciousness for three centuries now.
One quote from Bristed in 1863 sounds like it could just as easily have been postulated today.
But our masses, having only a rough general knowledge of foreign affairs, and not unnaturally somewhat exaggerating the space which we occupy in the world's eye, do not appreciate the complications which rendered such a conspiracy impossible.
That the Great Unwashed posses neither the means nor the faculties necessary to understand the true facts behind events seems to be a constant in the history Western Civilization. Today, every major event has its own conspiracy theory attached to it, no matter how self-evident are those falsehoods. From covid to train derailments, almost everything that happens today has some sinister or secret motive behind the event.
Of course, the Internet has only given amplification to those who espouse these nonsensical claims. In fact, the Internet itself has become the object of its own conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory concerning the Internet is known as "The Dead Internet" theory. Wikipedia explains that:
The dead Internet theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts that the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content that is manipulated by algorithmic curation, marginalizing organic human activity.
That the vast majority of Internet traffic now consists of bots and other forms of automated data flows that have spawned the Dead Internet theory are true and well-documented facts. As a report published in 2023 by security vendor, Imperva [pdf will open] details, in 2022, almost half of all Internet traffic was, in fact, not human generated flows of data, but were actually the work of bots. In its report, Imperva defined a bot as:
In the context of the internet, a bot is a software application that runs automated tasks. Such tasks can range from simple actions like filling out a form, to more complex tasks like scraping a website for data.
Imperva goes on to suggest that there are "good bots" and there are "bad bots." An example of a good bot is one that continually indexes the Internet based on searches for what and when. And especially bad bots would be "truly nefarious ones [that] undertake criminal activities, such as fraud and outright theft." Yep. I'd smack that bad bot right on its rotten little snout.
Last year saw a resurgence of the notion of an Internet now deceased that was spurred on by advances in Artificial Intelligence. Writing in Cybernews, November 15, 2023, Neil C. Hughes, takes notice that much of what users are presented with online is only what the corporate masters of today's Internet want users to experience:
Everything we see on our screens is increasingly being curated and aggregated by AI and algorithms created by a handful of corporations. From the music playlists on Spotify to the next binge-worthy boxset on Netflix, we are served more of what we have seen and heard.
Moreover, Hughes makes the case that, as a result of all this automated control of Internet content, "we have unwittingly killed serendipity and accidental organic discoveries of something outside our usual patterns." And, I might ask, "What is Life if not something organic?"
Indeed, as pointed out by James Vincent, writing in The Verge, June 26, 2023,
The web is always dying, of course; it’s been dying for years, killed by apps that divert traffic from websites or algorithms that reward supposedly shortening attention spans. But in 2023, it’s dying again — and, as the litany above suggests, there’s a new catalyst at play: AI.
Of course, as every good adherent to various conspiracy theories knows, eventually all theories lead back to Uncle Sam. Writing in a recent article for MSN, titled "People Believe That The "Dead Internet Theory" Has Some Startling Truth to It," author Callie (Carlos) Cadorniga, explains that "Extreme believers in the dead internet theory believe that government agencies use this concept to manipulate public perception." Cadorniga ends the MSN article by stating, "the growing influence of artificial intelligence in creative spaces may certainly provide a platform for concepts like the dead internet theory."
Neil C Hughes, noted above, rightly observed that:
Five years ago, the 'dead internet theory' was brushed off as a mere conspiracy. But the overwhelming tide of AI and bots could transform this myth into our sobering reality if bots continue to generate the content we consume.
The idea of a conspiracy theory is itself a fallacy, which is defined as "a false or mistaken idea." These notions of unseen forces pulling the strings on us puppets are more hypotheses, than theories. As Miriam-Webster Dictionary defines an hypothesis, the word hypothesis used to describe "an assumption, an idea that is proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true." A theory, in contrast, "is a principle that has been formed as an attempt to explain things that have already been substantiated by data." Theory may apply to the Kennedy assignation. On the other hand, there is no data to reinforce the fact that the Internet has died. Simply reading this article proves that the Internet is still in existence.
The very notion of a dead Internet is itself a non-sequitur. It simply does not follow that the Internet has died, for it was never a living, breathing thing. Sorry, kids, but what you call the Internet is in fact more accurately known as the World Wide Web. And the Web is nothing more than a collection of words, sounds, and images placed within computer files that were compiled using a programming language, like HTML and PHP, that can display those objects within a piece of software called a web browser, such as Google Chrome. The web browser is installed on a computer that is connected to an Internet Service provider so those files can be transferred to a file server that is also Internet connected. And, thus, those computer files can be shared among various users in different locations. I don't think any of these technologies display the qualities we normally associate with a life form, animal or vegetable. There is no respiration among machines.
All in all, rather than a hypothesis or theory that may be proven true or false, to this writer with a Marxist bent (Groucho, not Karlo), the whole discussion of a dead Internet seems reminiscent of that great Monty Python Dead Parrot skit.
Oh yeah, the
Norwegian Blue. What's wrong with it?
I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It’s
dead, that's what's wrong with it!
No, no, he’s...he's resting. Look.
Look, my lad, I know a dead parrot
when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
No, no, he's, he's not dead, he's
resting!
Gerald Reiff
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