The complex of ideas I’m going to call the Dark Internet Forest emerges from mostly insidery tech thinking, but from multiple directions.
Enter the Dark Forest
If you’ve managed to find your way here, you are likely familiar with the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet. You may not yet know it by name but you know it by vibe. Dark Forests are online gathering spaces that are non-indexed, non-optimized and hidden from public view. They are typically hosted in
The dark forest theory of the internet
In his sci-fi trilogy The Three Body Problem, author Liu Cixin presents the dark forest theory of the universe. When we look out into space, the theory goes, we’re struck by its silence. It seems like we’re the only ones here. After all, if other forms of
The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet
Why the dark forests of the internet — podcasts, newsletters, and other private channels — are growing, and why might that pose a problem
The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet
A book about how to survive on the internet. It’s about the cozy web, the dark web, the dark forest, the clear net, the dark net, and a new social world emerging around us. This is the Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet.
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Artists, raison d'être: Can we re-think tech that works for people, & not just corporations? Can we improve the world our children inherit? Deliberate, discuss, develop. This is DARKSHAPES. We build
Building in the dark forest
We write from our new home in the Dark Forest. This week we fully committed to our new universe: we abandoned Slack and moved all operations into DFOS, our new tool, available more widely in the coming weeks. It feels good in here. Calm. Cozy. Just enough activity for things
Dead Forest Theory
Internet darkness is turning into deadness and time is running out
What's good?
I want to start by talking about some things that seem like potential ways out of the dark forest tangle—even if they’re imperfect, which they all are.
The Internet Transition
The Internet is allowing us to build a richer, more complex society but the way in which we Internet today is failing to support the governance systems that a more complex world requires. I take a look at why these issues are related, try to develop an intuition for a way forward, and point at the emerging field that is coming together to build that future.
The Dark Forest and the Cozy Web
An illustrated diagram exposing the inner layers of the dark and cozy web
epistemic garden - mapping how ideas spread online
We're building tools to help communities understand their information landscape and protect against harmful coordinated narratives.
darkshapes
Umbrella organization rethinking machine-learning technology as tools that work for people, not just corporations
Technology without Industry
A home for poorly researched ideas that I find myself repeating a lot anyway
On Thickets, Enclosure, and Leaving
Every platform I left, I left for the same pattern: enclosure by othering — systems that define what is shameful, create targets, and point an aggressive majority at them. Substack's AI-detection turn is the latest, and it is Dark Forestry in action. The escape is spatial: go where the platforms ar…
I call this the dark matter theory of science. Blogs, social media, etc - a majority of what actually influences science is invisible to the system (esp in AI) Real systems change in science will only be possible when we recognize these sources of influence and intentionally design for them
Eugene Vinitsky 🍒
Kinda feel weird that a few blog posts I’ve written in a few hours will probably have more educational impact than any amount of teaching I’ll ever do
