PU 39: The Dead Internet Theory Was Right

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of bots on the internet and explores the validity of the Dead Internet Theory and enshittification.

Are humans on the internet being pushed out by bots? Is this a lunatic fringe conspiracy theory or does Cory Doctorow’s thesis of enshittification accurately describe what is happening? Punching Upwards , Episode 39 for 7 June 2026 Topics: Technology / Artificial Intelligence 🦉 No AI Content 📢 Podcast RSS Feed Credits Thanks to Michael Mullan-Jensen , Evgeny Kuznetsov , Vlad A Gouf , Fadi Mansour , Bennet Piater , Eric and Sir Galteran for supporting this podcast financially and therefore making it possible for me to produce it! See Also * Punching Upwards 22: Moltbook Madness Sources * Tweet by Matthew Prince , 3 June 2026 * Bots Now Outnumber Humans Online And The Internet Was Never Built For This , Forbes , 4 June 2026 * Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic, data shows , NBC News , 5 June 2026 * AI Agents Now Generate More Web Traffic Than Humans , CNET , 4 June 2026 * Cloudflare CEO says bot internet traffic has overtaken humans , Mashable , 5 June 2026 * AI and bots have officially taken over the internet, report finds , CNBC , 26 March 2026 * The 2026 State of AI Traffic & Cyberthreat Benchmark Report , Human Security, undated * “Bots have now passed human…

People in this episode

Host: Fabian A. Scherschel

Topics covered

• Technology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Internet
• Bots
• Enshittification

Keywords

• internet
• bots
• Cory Doctorow
• enshittification
• AI traffic
• human traffic
• technology
• conspiracy theory

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Forbes, NBC News, CNET, Mashable, CNBC, Human Security, Tom’s Hardware, The Register

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