Imagine a theory that suggests the internet as we know it died quietly several years back, around 2016 or 2017. According to this eerie notion, the bulk of online activity today is merely the orchestrated dance of algorithms, manipulating the global population for some undisclosed agenda..

It's the kind of concept that begins as a jest or a hypothetical scenario, yet somehow gains traction as some folks genuinely buy into it. What gives ideas like these their unsettling allure is their partial grounding in reality. Bots do roam the digital realm, algorithms do shape content and outcomes, but to conclude that these elements constitute the entirety of the internet is quite a stretch… unless?