"dark forest spaces grow 'because they provide psychological and reputational cover. They allow us to be ourselves because we know who else is there.'
Now we're getting somewhere."
----
Yeah we are.
Strongly recommended reading from @kissane
https://mas.to/@kissane/113527307000087541
Good morning! I have thoughts about the internet. https://www.wrecka.ge/against-the-dark-forest/
@kissane
"Because yes, the existence of dipshits is indeed unfixable, but building arrays of Dipshit Accelerators that allow a small number of bad actors to build destructive empires defended by Dipshit Armies is a choice. The refusal to genuinely remodel that machinery when its harms first appear is another choice."
https://www.wrecka.ge/against-the-dark-forest/
Or, as I've said: culture is reciprocal with affordances, and everything is downstream from culture.
"Few, if any, of this moment’s apparently unstoppable tech platforms will survive for long.... And that there is therefore not only an opportunity to provide more humane places for those people to go, but a responsibility to do so."
https://www.wrecka.ge/against-the-dark-forest/
god, yes.
That paragraph is my whole entire deal for the last 2 years.
"I no longer think that it's possible to mount an effective defense of the physical world—and of each other, in our fleshy vulnerability—without unfucking our networks. I find this both terrifying and clarifying."
https://www.wrecka.ge/against-the-dark-forest/
I can add nothing. This is simply and exactly correct.
But in case you haven't seen it, "unfucking the networks" has a specific meaning. The networks are more about connection, care, discovery, and growth than about wires and bits
*confused Three Body Problem reader noises*
@MxVerda right, I get that. It's also fictitious, and the premise doesn't hold when we're talking about other humans and human institutions. It relies on the conceit that the forest is full of all-powerful and unknowable monsters. Google and Facebook etc are neither.
The central point of the article is that pretending they are robs us of agency and imagination to do anything about it.
Jenniferplusplus
Lisa Brewster
Mx Verda