The Truth behind the Dark Forest Theory Of Internet

For most online users, the dark forest theory of the internet is something to ponder about. Clearly, it states that we are intrigued by the uncanny silence that surrounds us. When we look at the space, it is filled with silence, somewhat as if we are the ones that are only existing. Surely, if there are other life forms, they would be showing themselves. But it isn’t.

The universe is filled with various planets and they have life forms. The earth is the only one showing off its atmosphere and existence, without thinking about why other planets or life forms aren’t showing themselves.

Let’s use the same scenario for a dark forest that is silent at the night. The pin-drop silence might confuse us into thinking that the forest is empty. But the emptiness is the fear. The fear that most animals have who are hiding and having fear of the predators who are lurking.

Well, the same is what the Internet is becoming now. A dark forest that is infested with online predators.

Retreating To Dark Forest Forest Of Internet

The extensive response to ads, the trolling, tracking, and the hype have made the predatory behaviours more extreme. And that leads us to retreat back to the dark forest of the internet and get away from the mainstream.

A perfect example to retreat is the podcast. Here the meanings and interactions are not expressed by language but through the interactions and intonation. It is a place where even a bad joke that might cause discomfort can still be followed by a self-deprecating and self-aware save. Frankly, it is a more forgiving area where people can communicate freely rather than the online one.

Dark Forest — A Safe Heaven

No doubt dark forest theory like the podcast and newsletter are becoming areas of high activity. Like other dark forests, such as private Instagram, slack channel, text groups, message boards, WeChat, Snapchat, etc, these are becoming a prominent place for communication.

Also, these are the places where one can have depressurized conversations as they have a non-optimized, non-indexed and non-gamified environments. Even the cultures of such spaces are quite common with the physical word when compared to the Internet.

How Dark Forest Gained Prominence?

It is fear. We have started to fear technology. Somewhat there has been an increase in the amount of mistrust we are having on all the things that it provides. It makes us feel that all the new things that come from the dark side are dangerous. Just consider the recent mini-viral storm related to the “10 Year Challenge” meme and even the information related to the usage of AI by Facebook to improve the recognition of the ageing face.

Now, this is something that can be hard to believe. Not because one can have sincere faith on Facebook. Like it would have a transparent benevolence since they had a way past the huge cornucopia of these data. Here the more accurate term will be tagging.

However, it might surprise some people on how most of us have started to resent the kind of advanced technology has bought. Even considering it as a dark forest theory. Most importantly, all the things that we see or think about technology are considered as a threat. All this is until it is proved to be a blessing. So, how and why it happened?

Maybe it is because we humans don’t like change. Each time something new comes, we fear it will become a part of us, maybe make us more accustomed to using it for all kinds of affairs. So, who to be blamed? Maybe it can be the tech industry. These wealthy and influential tech industries have become the power centres for decision making of people. They have started to define the human hierarchy and replaced it with something that is disrupting or undercutting.

Here, one needs to understand that it is hard to shake off the sense, which is that technology is not there to improve the human hierarchy. It is the job of democracy. And shockingly, the so-called democracy is doing a bad job (seriously a really poor job) for the past few years. No doubt, it is still hard to blame the mishaps on technology.

Technology As Magic

One thing you might have a basic hunch is whether this while dark forest attitude towards tech is due to the fact that people assume technology to be magic. Well, in almost most technology it is assumed and even especially for artificial intelligence too. People get a bit scared of how much influence AI technology can have in our lives.

They have apprehensions on how much trustworthy technology like AI can be. There are various groups out there who feel AI technology can hinder the dependence humans have over each other. Frankly, AI is something that shifts the dependency humans have over one another to machines. For businesses this is great but for certain sections of the society, it means making life easy and bit lazy.

Most importantly, this so-called resentment as stated above is not only on AI. The technology as magic is applicable to all kinds of technology and machines. Just think, how many people know about the technology involved when the switch is flicked and the light comes. Even the same way for text messaging or the mere change in degrees of the global temperature will lead to catastrophic for billions.

See, here it is the fear. We often fear the unknown. Technology has become or compared to a dark forest because people assume it to be dark magic.

Wrapping Up

Basically, dark magic has become our only source or hope to solve the immediate existential issues like global warming. We are living in a dark forest that is filled with terrible and subtle ill-defined threats. And these are not caused by the new technology as they are due to the consequences of the exceeding the basic carrying capacity the planet (Earth) has with the old tech.

Dark forest theory was something that we created and can only be annihilated by us. We as collective humans should know when and how the technology can be used and that too for our usefulness. There needs to be a line drawn between how technology can work great for us and how it can harm us. Let’s face it. Each technology that we create won’t let go of our past and will surely change our future.