[TaylorAlexander]

Well this makes me think of personal assistants. Lots of people have their assistant email someone else's assistant to set up a meeting. If these AIs actually work properly, the scenario may not end up being terribly concerning.

[andrewflnr]

Oh, sure, Watts has those, too. The problem is that in that world, the public Internet consists entirely of bots screaming at each other, and is basically unusable for anything else. Now listen to the fears about GPT spam finally rendering Google utterly useless, and tell me you don't feel the foreshocks of that future.

[rektide]

Lovely imagery, loved it, & well related.

I do think it a little over reduces the imagery/situation, a bit. Watts' late internet has so many factors of just wrecked savage badlands, being endlessly blasted with savage e-storms. Endless bots screaming, oh yes oh yes, but also just everything under active caustic assault, all pieces of information actively being degraded, constant brownout/black outs, storms & turbulence aplenty. It's wild imagery for a hellacious information space.

Packets are like little programs sent out into the din, trying to make it through the chaos, but being injured mangled warped & hobbled at every step. Picking up all kinds of riders & viruses or just being assaulted & damaged. It's wonderfully terrible imagery.

The second book is Maelstrom, named for this howling shrieking post-internet storm. Book 2, like book 1, has, best I can tell, nothing at all like it in all existence. Amazing grimdark shit.

[lynx23]

I believe SEO spam has alreaedy ruined Google. So no need to wait for an AI-originating event. The data-apocalypse is already here.