I've finally started watching Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. What a great show!

It talked about the "Old Net". The show takes place in 2077 and they say that "50 years earlier", the internet collapsed. ¹ A hacker released a virus that corrupted much of the network. Leaving people scattered, isolated in a bunch of smaller local networks. The old net still contains valuable information and lost knowledge, but rogue AIs inhabit it and attack whoever tries to access it.

That felt so real, so close. It felt like it could really happen now. It probably wouldn't be as dramatic or cinematic as the show makes it look. But the idea itself doesn't feel far-fetched to me.

The internet already feels like a hostile environment where I don't want to spend much more time except in a few curated places.

Social media is filled with fake news, distorted news, hatred. It is just chaos. Echo chambers occasionally launching raids on each other.

And the algorithms keep pulling me back into that chaos. The second I let my guard down and open a social media platform, I easily get stuck. By the time I notice, I've already lost several minutes doomscrolling, feeling more anxious.

Then there are the security risks. AI bots are already attacking systems. ²³⁴ New security exploits keep being discovered, hopefully before someone takes advantage of them. People have started bunkering down their systems. I've already taken several apps offline and increased security for the few that remain online. It is starting to feel scary to be online.

How far are we from collapsing the internet? From having a true world wide web that is so risky to navigate that people will start avoiding it? An internet full of bots, artificial and empty content?

There are some outliers that have been avoiding most of the internet. Mostly for privacy. But I'm starting to see a different concern in tech circles: whether being online is worth the risk and effort. I wonder how far that feeling could spread. And if the retreat could happen slowly enough that we wouldn't recognise it as a collapse.

I don't want to sound like an AI doomer. This post is not about AI taking over all layers of society. Taking jobs. Destroying the world. I'm not yet there. ⁵ But somehow, this internet collapse does sound a bit more plausible.

The internet is already mostly dead. We are already questioning every piece of content out there. Attacks are becoming more frequent. The risks of being online are increasing. Still relatively low for the average Joe and Jane. But increasing fast.

Just do the mental exercise for a bit. What if the internet as we know it today became inhospitable?

Perhaps the internet won't collapse in one dramatic event. Perhaps we'll just stop opening certain websites. Stop publishing our projects. Stop talking to strangers.

The servers will still be running. But we'll be bunkered down in private networks with family and close friends. But some of my favorite things about the internet came from people I didn't know existed. I don't want to lose that!

How would we even discover new things? Would it feel like a scavenger entering an area full of predators and hostile agents? A wrong click and your PC is fried and all your information is stolen if you were not careful?

I don't know what that alternative should look like yet. But I want somewhere I can share a project, meet a stranger, and follow my curiosity without constantly wondering what I'm exposing myself to.

That's something I'd like to help build. Reach out if you would like to chat about this idea!