The Dark Forest Collective || The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet Roundtable

The Dark Forest Collective:
Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter/Metalabel)
Venkatesh Rao (Ribbonfarm)
Maggie Appleton
Peter Limberg and Rebecca Fox (The Stoa)
Joshua Citarella (Do Not Research)
Arthur Röing Baer and GVN908 (Moving Castles)
Leith Benkhedda (Trust)
Caroline Busta and Lil Internet (New Models)
darkforest.metalabel.com
Collect “The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet”: darkforest.metalabel.com/dfa2
"The Anthology is a 208-page book that documents five tumultuous years when we learned how to live, create, and conspire on an increasingly adversarial internet.
The original “Dark Forest Theory of the Internet” essay was published by Yancey Strickler in a private newsletter sent to 500 readers. The post struck a chord and became widely shared, with hundreds of thousands of readers in the following weeks. The concept of the Dark Forest captured a feeling and sense of danger online that an increasing number of people shared.
In the years following, some of the most influential voices on the web and in culture built on, argued with, and expanded the original Dark Forest concept. "The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet" brings those disparate pieces together into a canon of thought that defines a specific era of the internet.
The eleven authors include: Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter/Metalabel); Venkatesh Rao (Ribbonfarm); Maggie Appleton; Peter Limberg and Rebecca Fox (The Stoa); Joshua Citarella (Do Not Research); Arthur Röing Baer and GVN908 (Moving Castles); Leith Benkhedda (DNR, Trust, and New Models); and Caroline Busta and Lil Internet (New Models).
The Anthology contains:
- The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet by Yancey Strickler
- The Extended Internet Universe by Venkatesh Rao
- The Dark Forest and Cozy Web by Maggie Appleton
- Chapel Perilous by Peter Limberg and Rebecca Fox
- We Need New Platforms to Tell New Stories by Joshua Citarella
- Proof of Vibes by Leith Benkhedda
- Moving Castles by Arthur Röing Baer and GNV908
- The internet didn’t kill counterculture; you just won’t find it on Instagram by Caroline Busta
- The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI by Maggie Appleton
- Holographic Meda by Caroline Busta and Lil Internet
- The Post Individual by Yancey Strickler
Further details:
"The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet"
Published by The Dark Forest Collective
Paperback, 208 pages, 4.4 x 6.6 inches / 11.2 x 16.8 cm
ISBN: 979-8-218-31123-0”

[@NickHanson]

The physics of online media is neat parallel to the implications of the Dark Forest as they are articulated by Liu. He says that attacks between civilizations across the Dark Forest will inevitably take the form of fundamental changes in the physics. This could be in the slowing of time around a particular planet or it could be the flattening of 3D space into 2D space to destroy a threat. When looked at from the frame of online media zones, the rules of the zone being seen as the physics leads us to the conclusion that the changing or leveraging of those physics is one of the key vectors for dispensing of perceived threats from actors across Dark Forests.

[@clintnorton4322]

At 53:25 the question is asked "if we speak in the idiosyncratic language of memes, how do the Dark Forests communicate?"
Peter's answer is good but incomplete.
As in real forests, it's the fringe that receives communication from other forests via "pheromone" drift and other means. If the core of the forest is listening, and the core must listen to the fringe if it truly cares about the forest, then the "Ents" who care for the forest should do as Peter related, go talk to the Ents in other forests and learn their ways.
Ents don't become wise in a silo but neither do they know that there's more to learn if they don't listen to the fringe.

[@gabgnooo]

Comments enabled on this one! Keep parsing through the noise, loving it ❤

[@tuckerbugeater]

They're afraid of being exposed.

[@WGPower_Nonchalant_Cafe]

Walking through a (dark forest), tears in my eyes
Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye
… Knowing me, knowing you (ah-ha)
There is nothing we can do
Knowing me, knowing you (ah-ha)