Hello darlings, looking fabulous as always. You may remember a few months ago I wrote about the eery and thought-provoking Three-Body Problem series of books. In particular, the second book, The Dark Forest really stuck with me. Not long after that, I came across the writings of a group calling itself the Dark Forest Collective. “Wait,” I thought, “could that be a reference to the book I just read?” Well, darlings, it is! But it’s not about aliens, it all about us. This collective of cultural thinkers has taken central conceit of that book and uses it to explore techno-social trends shaping our lives today.
But first, spoiler time! If you want to get the full impact of the books, then stop reading. I’m about the give away the punchline. A necessary evil, I’m afraid, to discuss the another book that’s today’s central theme.
We start with a quote from very close to the end of The Dark Forest:
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization.
Not exactly the socialist utopia of the Star Trek universe, is it? Or even the optimistic, if patriarchal, heroism of Star Wars. It’s something else entirely. And in 2019, Yancey Strickler (one of the founders of Kickstarter) saw some parallels between that speculation on the nature of the cosmos and our Earthly internet:
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 today: a relentless competition for power. As this competition has grown in size and ferocity, an increasing number of the population has scurried into their dark forests to avoid the fray.
Maggie Appleton, writing a few years later describes the internet of today thusly:
It’s like a dark forest that seems eerily devoid of human life—all the living creatures are hidden beneath the ground or up in trees. If they reveal themselves, they risk being attacked by automated predators. Humans who want to engage in informal, unoptimized, personal interactions have to hide in closed spaces like invite-only Slack channels, Discord groups, email newsletters, small-scale blogs and digital gardens. Or make themselves illegible and algorithmically incoherent in public venues.
Other writers and thinkers picked up on the idea of self-isolating online spaces in the intervening years. Enough that they banded together to form a collective and start publishing their writings—to wit, their first collection The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet. Strickler and the other contributors each offer their takes on the trends and techniques of these new virtual spaces or new ways of being in the current landscape of virtual spaces. Some come at if from the technical, some from the social or philosophical. Taken as a whole the anthology posits a fascinating new digital topography that’s worth paying attention to, whether you create, enjoy the creativity of others, or are looking beyond the wasteland of “social” media.
If you’re tempted to wander off the clear, bright path into the dark forest, it’s worth considering this thought from Caroline Busta:
So what does today’s counter-hegemonic culture look like? It’s not particularly interested in being seen—at least not in person. It gets no thrill out of wearing leather and a mohawk and walking past main-street shops, which are empty now anyway. But it does demonstrate a hunger for freedom—freedom from the attention economy, from atomization, and from the extractive logic of mainstream communication. In the internet era, true counterculture is difficult to see, and even harder to find—but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
The average reader of this book might come away with some interesting ideas, perhaps a spark of curiosity, and think, well isn’t that interesting. The overall tone of the selected essays is intellectual, a philosophical thought exercise seen from a lofty height. However, like me you might read it and see, between the branches, something much deeper and more urgent.
I would wager that if you’re reading this, then seeking such dark forest spaces isn’t merely a matter of self-expression. It ’s just as much a search for safety: from harassment (online and IRL); from censorship; from repression. Many might seek such spaces for organizing resistance or mutual-aid. None of these needs serve the ends of capitalism or bow to fascism, so the open internet, now all but totally coopted, will just not do.
And it may not be worth our time anymore, darlings. Sure, we could leave a few signs there, some way finding hints for those in the know. But live our lives and be our best, fabulous selves in the now fascist interwebs? No thank you.
I can’t leave you with “three easy steps” or “do this one crazy thing” and magic will happen. Those kinds of formulations are false promises and usually come from a place of capitalistic exploitation. Rather, this is, like real-life gardening (or forestry), a slow process. The collection of dark forest spaces you cultivate will look nothing like mine—just like one person’s garden is not like another’s. And that’s the beauty of it. It’s not easy, but more effort leads to more meaning--and maybe even joy.
Alternatives to the major platforms already exist and continue to thrive. I’ve written about them before (see We are Not Free Labor, We are Not the Product!) and there’s a good intro and round-up on the Fedi.Tips website. Last but not least, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a fabulous collection of safety tips on their Surveillance Self-Defense site.
The dark forest, despite its ominous name, is something to be cultivated joyously. Let’s plant more trees, darlings!
Until next time, flame on! 🔥