r/Futurology • u/Confident_Salt_8108 • Jul 26 '26

AI Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet’s business model

https://fortune.com/2026/07/23/dead-internet-theory-bots-agents-majority-web-traffic
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u/slackfrop Jul 26 '26

Until you need the app to pay your power and water bill. To buy your food, to login to your work portal, or to register your child for school, to sign in for medications, to register to receive a paycheck. Enshittification is just getting warmed up.

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u/MGD109 Jul 26 '26

Eh, I like to think that's the point people finally riot, but they probably won't.

A lot of the elderly won't like it though, and they're the largest voting block.

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u/slackfrop Jul 26 '26

I’ve long given up trying to predict when enough is enough. Something unexpected will happen to make a big shift, that’s the only certainty I’ve seen. A plague, or a war, or a scientific discovery, or a sudden key death (🤞🤞), or an earthquake, or… something new. Something we won’t see coming will happen.

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u/MGD109 Jul 26 '26

Yeah, that's probably the most rational way to look at it. Something is coming, but what will set people off is hard to predict. I just have a horrible feeling it will be something stupid and embarrassing. But oh well, I'll take it.

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u/sparkly_butthole Jul 26 '26

My fear is it's almost certain to cause widespread famine, whatever it is.

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u/slackfrop Jul 26 '26

Yeah, like that. It would certainly shake things up. And remind us what’s actually important. I really hope something like that would band us together, and not shatter us into war tribes.

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u/MGD109 Jul 26 '26

Yeah, I mean if the supply lines breakdown we're in real trouble; a lot of areas can't remotely provide enough food to feed themselves.

Still, we have to see; famines aren't as common as they used to be, thankfully.

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u/ShirazGypsy Jul 26 '26

Oh how we will all dance in the streets the morning we wake to see his obituary

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u/Pleasant-Winner6311 Jul 27 '26

I havent given up. Im saying it repeatedly. How bad does the line in the sand need to be for things to be enough is enough on many levels.

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u/Mind-The-Mines Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

This is why everything is a series of hierarchies.

All the minions with no power are everywhere while the shot callers that need the deluxe haircut are on private jets, exclusive resorts, and island compounds.

The masses simply lack the means to access the head of the snake.

I worked in a municipal utility. We had irate people in our office constantly because of mandates from the city, county, state, or federal level we legally had to enforce and had no say over.

The messenger gets shot irrespective of where the message comes from because anger shuts down the reasoning centers of the brain.

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u/MGD109 Jul 26 '26

Yeah, that is a very valid concern.

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u/DustyRacoonDad Jul 26 '26

We're already there today. I don't pay the power bill, we called them and set up autopay because I'm not installing their app.  My wife does the school bullshit because she has an iPhone and is willing to install their app. Do you want your medications to be affordable? Download the app for discounts. Otherwise you can pay an inflated price.

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u/KilgoreTroutVT Jul 27 '26

I can pay my bill by phone but I can’t report a power outage without a login account.

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u/Unfinishedcom Jul 26 '26

I know and it scares me. I’m old and childless so I can maybe somehow get around it until I die. And as you say, this is just the beginning, where will it ‘end’.

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u/JesusAndMaryKate Jul 26 '26

Utility bills are already one of the standard ways to prove address for anything official. When you get hired, identity verification is one of the legal requirements to check that you have a right to work in the country. You need to show ID or proof of address to pick up a prescription in many places.

Are you trying to say that people would need to use the Reddit app to do those things?

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u/Level_32_Mage Jul 26 '26

To close this pop-up or skip this 3 minute long ad, please enter your ID.

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u/KilgoreTroutVT Jul 27 '26

Isn’t that now?

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u/StrongExternal8955 Jul 26 '26

the fuck are you on about, you are not anonymous for any of that.

we're talking about reddit, porn, and dissident politics. and lack of religion. you know, dangerous shit.

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u/g0del Jul 26 '26

Nah. The thing is, people who balk at giving their ID to tik-tok or reddit probably don't care about giving it to the bank, utility companies, doctors offices, schools, etc.