updated 5mo ago
The Dark Forest and the Post-Individual
Andrew McCluskey added
- Nadia described the Dark Forest as representing the next era of the internet — where we are now. Where instead of seeking to maximize status — which some of us still do — more of us find ourselves seeking safety and context online instead.
from The Dark Forest and the Post-Individual by Yancey Strickler
Alex Dobrenko added
what we seek now is safety and context
- This is also what the internet is becoming: a dark forest.
In response to the ads, the tracking, the trolling, the hype, and other predatory behaviors, we’re retreating to our dark forests of the internet, and away from the mainstream.
This very email is an example of this. This theory is being shared on a private channel sent to 500 people who I kno... See morefrom The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet by Yancey Strickler
Andrei Stoica added
- “the dark forest” region of the web is becoming increasingly important as a space of online communication for users of all ages and political persuasions. In part, this is because it is less sociologically stressful than the clearnet zone, where one is subject to peer, employer, and state exposure.
Hendrik added
sari and added
The dark forest theory of the web points to the increasingly life-like but life-less state of being online. Most open and publicly available spaces on the web are overrun with bots, advertisers, trolls, data scrapers, clickbait, keyword-stuffing “content creators,” and algorithmically manipulated junk.
from The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI by Maggie Appleton
sari added
- “The internet of today is a battleground. The idealism of the ‘90s web is gone... The public and semi-public spaces we created to develop our identities, cultivate communities, and gain in knowledge were overtaken by forces using them to gain power of various kinds (market, political, social, and so on). This is the atmosphere of the mainstream web... See more
from The Post-Individual
Erikc Perez-Perez and added
The Internet Didn’t Kill Counterculture—you Just Won’t Find It on Instagram
Seth Werkheiser and added