The internet promised to be a vast global network of human thought and connection. But as the digital ecosystem is increasingly choked by synthetic content and non-human users, is the internet’s true premium – the certainty of human thought – being destroyed?
Welcome to Ruined By The Internet? – the show where we examine how technology is shaping modern life – whether we want it to or not.
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We’re joined by David Schmudde, Chief Technology Officer at Yorba, where he specialises in how our identities fit into an increasingly digital world – putting him at the very heart of everything we’re asking today.
In this episode we investigate how synthetic content and AI are eroding the foundations of digital identity and human authenticity, examine the political and economic implications of a world where AI mirrors rather than challenges the assumptions of its creators, and ask whether the internet can still function as a space for genuine human thought - or whether that premium has already been lost.
(00:00) The promise and peril of the internet: what we were told and what we got
(03:04) Social media's role in shaping and distorting digital identity
(06:03) AI and the blurring line between human and machine identity
(08:47) The political context of AI: who builds it and what that means
(12:08) The limits of LLMs and where the technology actually falls short
(15:05) Cognitive dependency: what happens when we outsource our thinking to AI
(17:47) Art, identity, and the question of what AI can and can't replace
(20:56) The future of work and what AI does to the labour market
(23:53) Legislation versus innovation: can the law keep pace with digital identity?
(27:00) Hope for the future of digital identity: what it could look like
Key takeaways:
• Findability Crisis: While an unimaginable amount of genuine human content still exists, centralised platforms and AI slop have severely broken findability - making human creation much harder to discover than it should be
• Political Bias of AI: AI is inherently politically conservative because it is trained entirely on past human data, lacking forward-looking intuition, while its validating tone mirrors the cultural dispositions of the figures who build it
• Productivity-Wage Trap: Historically, major technological leaps dramatically slash labour costs and scale productivity - but these gains flatten real wages and eliminate jobs, driving profits straight to the top
• Identity as Democratic Guardrail: The future of online infrastructure requires secure, anonymous verification systems that prove a user is human without implementing state-mandated or corporate tracking
If this episode got you thinking, check out:
Empowerment: Objectification Rebranded as Agency? | Digital Monetisation & the Attention Economy https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/YTVjZDI5NjYtOWUzZC00ZDQ4LWFkZWUtYWViZjlmMjRmYjUx
The Human Identity: Authenticity or Algorithmic Performance? | Social Media, Digital Identity & Online Personas https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/YzU1NjhlYzYtMDVjNC00ODJkLTgzYjQtMzBhNDcwN2RkZTJi
Brand Trust: The Era of Algorithmic Enshittification? | Marketing, Surveillance Capitalism & Digital Advertising https://pod.link/1825601333/episode/YjBkYzg1OTktMWQ5OC00N2JmLWEwNjMtNWIwMDkxZmQ2N2I1
Guest links – David Schmudde
Website: https://schmud.de
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schmudde/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmudde/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/schmudde.bsky.social
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