I need a break

Remember years ago when a bunch of articles were written about how governments want to give each of their citizens some sort of internet id? The reasons listed being focused on harassment, hate speech, and other questionably illegal (depending on your jurisdiction) conduct. Media companies were, of course, on board as it would presumably make it easier to track down individuals infringing on their copyright of a bit sequence resembling their most recent box office failure and allow them seek financial compensation, or preferably, a summary execution. This proposal, of an internet id tied to an individual, was soundly rejected by every person who was active on the internet.

Why?

It’s simple: the internet represented freedom in the most basic sense. I know that is a bit cringe and many people would first jump to the word ‘anonymity’ but the essence of anonymity on the internet is the freedom to do whatever you want without being identified in the ‘real world’. This was the foundation of interaction on the early internet. The default level of trust given to anything written on the internet, by someone anonymous, was zero. Even without any monetisation or incentives existing at the time, you could dismiss anything as a fabrication and you would typically be correct to do so. The early internet raised one of the greatest group of skeptics in history; for better or worse.

What changed?

Short answer: everything. The internet changed everything. Once people and businesses started making money online and the internet reached the critical mass of users required to shape public opinion, the internet as we once knew it was over. Before, when there was no incentive to lie other than for personal indulgence, any written word was met with extreme skepticism. Now, having every incentive to lie, deceive, and misinform, we seem to just believe. An influencer promotes their new crypto project (scam) and I genuinely wonder if there has ever been an influencer crypto project that hasn’t resulted in the investors losing all their money. Surely it is literally impossible to fall for this again, especially after NFTs, right? A few months later I see a lawsuit alleging millions lost and another small crack in my psyche forms (the cracks now number in the tens of thousands, I am barely holding it together).

Ok, so what?

I’m done with it. I’m done with the bots. I’m done with the astroturfing. I’m done with AI. I’m done with the trolling. I’m done with the fake reviews. I’m done with the misinformation. I’m done with the manipulation. I’m done with the fake profiles. I’m done with the spam. I’m done with the fake experts. I’m done with..

Stop being dramatic.

Fine. I am not ready to leave the internet. It doesn’t have to be this way (maybe). Remember that internet id thing? The thing that was nearly universally hated? I like that idea now. I think it was AI that pushed me over the edge (although I don’t exactly know where that edge is, I just know I am now over it). The current iteration of AI is the worst thing to happen to the modern internet since kids under the age of 16 were able to contribute to online discourse. The burden to determine if something on the internet is just AI slop is so much higher than it ever has been. It makes the internet tiresome and passionless. You can spend minutes reading the dumbest idea ever unleashed onto this planet and not even be sure if the being you want to strangle on the other end of that abomination even exists.

So how does this internet id fix this?

It might not. I would even say it probably doesn’t but I am willing to try anything. Anything to bring back even the semblance that the internet contains real human interaction. It wouldn’t be mandatory for either an individual or a website. It could, however, be an option. You could be given an id by some authority (most likely government) that could verify you are a living human being. This id is not identifiable to your real personhood in any way. It is simply a marker on your public interactions showing you are indeed a human. That’s all I’m asking.

Couldn’t this be exploited?

Yes it could be and would be. People would sell and buy ids. It would be stolen and used nefariously but even so it doesn’t contain any personal information it is simply your unique human identifier. ID authorities could be corrupted and give them out to bad actors. The authorities themselves could be the bad actors. All this could happen and people would begin to trust certain authorities more than others. This is far from perfect but at least it’s something. At this point I will take literally anything as I feel we are crossing the rubicon, if we haven’t already. riends you aren’t voting for either party and then go home to pat yourself on the back for doing the ‘right thing’ (which in this case is getting tens of thousands more innocent people killed) instead you should just shut up idiot.