Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

= "spaces where depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments". [1]

Context

Yancey Strickler, in: The Dark Forest and the Post-Individual.

"Earlier this week I spoke with the writer Nadia Asparahouva, author of the great book Working in Public. "In our conversation, Nadia Asparahouva mentioned the classic piece “Status as a service” by Eugene Wei that details how Twitter functions (or functioned) as a giant status-seeking engine. This piece, Nadia proposed, crystalized the era of the internet when people were optimizing for likes and cultural cache in a game that felt novel and exciting. Something essentially all ambitious people felt compelled to do.

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."

(https://ystrickler.com/the-dark-forest-and-the-post-individual)

Description

Yancey Strickler:

"“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.

“Dark forests like newsletters and podcasts are growing areas of activity. As are other dark forests, like Slack channels, private Instagrams, invite-only message boards, text groups, Snapchat, WeChat, and on and on. These are all spaces where depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments.

“An increasing number of the population has scurried into their dark forests to avoid the fray.”

(https://www.ystrickler.com/the-dark-forest-anthology-of-the-internet/)

More information

• Book: The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet.

URL = https://darkforest.metalabel.com/