The Ecology of Information
The metaphor of "Digital Plastic" illuminates the ecological dimension of the Synthetocene. In the physical world, plastic mimics organic material in form but lacks its integration into natural cycles. It does not decay; it persists and chokes the ecosystem.
Digital Plastic operates analogously:
- Mimicry: It looks like a human essay, a human comment, or a human art piece.
- Persistence: It is generated at near-zero cost and infinite scale, flooding platforms faster than it can be curated or archived.
- Sterility: It lacks the "nutritional value" of human intent—the lived experience, the struggle for meaning, the "ghost in the machine."
The Zombie Internet
The proliferation of Digital Plastic powers the "Dead Internet" or "Zombie Internet" hypothesis. This is the condition where an increasing majority of web traffic is bot-generated, creating a system where algorithms engage with algorithms in endless loops of attention farming.
In this environment, human users become marginal participants in an infrastructure ostensibly built for them, forced to wade through "interaction-bait" and synthetic filler to find genuine connection.
Archaeological Implication
For the Digital Archaeologist, Digital Plastic creates a massive "contamination" problem. The stratum of the Synthetocene is not "clean dirt"; it is a landfill. The primary skill of the new era is not just excavation, but Forensic Decontamination—the ability to scrape away the synthetic plastic to find the organic Vivibyte underneath.