The Provenance Internet: Rediscovery, Artifact Trails, and Recoverable Social Objects

Description The Provenance Internet proposes a shift away from feed-based social systems toward rediscovery-oriented interaction systems centered around artifacts, trails, buried objects, and recoverable social memory. In feed-based internet systems, value is primarily attached to novelty, immediacy, and visibility. AI-generated media accelerates this process by making content production nearly infinite. The Provenance Internet reframes value around provenance rather than publication. The central question becomes: “Where did this come from, who carried it, how did it survive, and why does it continue to reappear?” The core model is: Artifact → Bury → Dig → Rebury → Trail OldDug is introduced as a provenance-native social runtime centered around rediscovery, artifact sediment, buried social objects, and recoverable internet memory. The paper also positions Brown Hyperlinks / Burylinks as a recoverable hyperlink primitive within the broader Brown Web.