dead internet: 11mar26

Dead internet theory says that the majority of actions and interactions on the net are performed by bots now. I saw a note the other day saying that Instagram and TikTok are testing tools to automatically offer people shopping recommendations based on stuff seen in their feeds or their own photos and videos. That basically kills the influencer market. Agentic shopping doesn’t work properly yet, but when it does, that’ll be another human action layer gone. I’ve looked at the Substack and Reddit apps this week, and half of those posts seem to be written by bots too. I tried being more connected for a while, but I seem to have just opened slurry pipes.

Around 1897, the French director Georges Méliès made a silent short film that, until last month, hadn’t been publicly viewable for more than a century. “Gugusse et l’Automate,” or “Gugusse and the Automaton,” is a 45-second slapstick piece featuring a magician and a Pierrot-styled robot as they duke it out.

OPERATIONS: prose day
STATUS: when i refused to wake up to get his breakfast, the mancub switched the radio on and then slapped me around the face
READING: THE BOOK OF COMMENTARY / UNQUIET GARDEN OF THE SOUL, Alexander Kluge (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:

LAST WATCHED: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING. Not as joyless as the one before it, but the ending didn’t quite stick for me.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.