Intro to the Dark Forest

If you're someone interested in my writing around the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet, here's where you can go deeper.

1. Start with the cultural diagnosis

These pieces explain the cultural terrain we're surrounded by:

• “Dark Forest Theory of the Internet” – Private, semi-hidden spaces becoming the default, and what that means for speech, moderation, and public discourse.
• “The Post-Individual” – Why lone-genius and influencer models are giving way to group-based identities, and what that implies for representation and rights.
• The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet (book) – A collection of essays by a dozen writers exploring this new world we find ourselves in.

2. Go deeper

Underneath these initial essays are deeper ideas:

• New Creative Era podcast — A podcast season with Josh Citarella devoted to exploring all aspects of the dark forest.
• "The internet is dying on the outside but growing on the inside" — How Dark Forest Theory and Dead Internet Theory collide and reinforce each other.
• "The blessing and the thirst" — The dark forest and the COVID era.
• "Doomscroll: The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet" — A video interview with Joshua Citarella about the dark forest.
• Antimemetics — A book by Nadia Asparouhova that I edited and published that explores the worlds of important ideas designed not to be shared or seen.

3. The Dark Forest in practice

Exploring the dark forest as both a protocol and practice as well as theory.

• Dark Forest Operating System — A new software tool that provides a full-stack dark forest experience of a private internet.
• The Dark Forest Collective — A group of 16 writers publishing and releasing work exploring how we exist online today.
• Metalabel — A platform for groups of people to collectively release work and share in the proceeds.
• Bentoism —An applied philosophical tool for making decisions using group-based logic.

4. Where to follow ongoing work

• Dark Forest Collective — Where new collaborative work will continue to be released.
• Dark Forest OS — A new platform for people make their own dark forests.