vics ── .✦

the dark forest theory of the internet

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There are a lot of predators online: trackers, trolls, clickbait-ers, actual predators, etc.
In response, we’re retreating into the cozyweb-type spaces (see Rao, Vankatesh - 2019 - The Extended Internet Universe) where, as Yancey Strickler puts it, “depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments”.
- (I think Yancey describes these spaces as the dark forest… I tend to lean more toward them existing outside of the dark forest, like in Maggie Appleton’s diagram – possibly because I saw it first.)
This is creating a “dark forest”, as described in the dark forest theory of the universe.
- The internet appears empty because everyone is staying quiet to avoid the predators.
I did not keep the original version of this note, so some links may seem out of place.

created: 2024-10-18-21-49 ✻ modified: 2026-07-30-15-24 ✻ tags:

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