The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet (Venkatesh Rao, Ribbonfarm, 2024/04/16)

The Book

"The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet 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 Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet 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 Contents

Available to purchase through Metalabel

Publication "Notes"

Links/quotes presented alongside the book on its Metalabel purchase ("collect") page

The Players

"This anthology features the who’s who of intellectual hipsters providing meta takes on the internet" - Peter Limberg

🌱

What Theory is Not, Theorizing Is (Karl E. Weick, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1995)

Products of the theorizing process seldom emerge as full-blown theories, which means that most of what passes for theory in organizational studies consists of approximations. Although these approximations vary in their generality, few of them take the form of strong theory, and most of them can be read as texts created "in lieu of" strong theories. These substitutes for theory may result from lazy theorizing in which people try to graft theory onto stark sets of data. But they may also represent interim struggles in which people intentionally inch toward stronger theories. The products of laziness and intense struggles may look the same and may consist of references, data, lists, diagrams, and hypotheses. To label these five as "not theory" makes sense if the problem is laziness and incompetence. But ruling out those same five may slow inquiry if the problem is theoretical development still in its early stages. Sutton and Staw know this. But it gets lost in their concern with theory as a product rather than as a process. To add complication and nuance to their message, I want to focus on the process of theorizing.

Elsewhere on Metalabel

What do you do if you feel lost in the dark forest of the internet? Knocking on doors is safer than prancing down mainstream but who might be behind the door? The cozyweb is full of sketchy spaces... Skepticism of those hiding behind academic/art-speak or layers of post-irony that are commonplace Like the shitty boyfriend who learned the language of emotional intelligence and therapy but uses it to justify the same behavior "This seems interesting/good" --> "Uh oh, this is bad" I believe that I am as suceptible to propaganda as anyone Endlessly forking paths from substacks