The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet

by Yancey Strickler, Venkatesh Rao, Maggie Appleton

This is a book about how to survive on the internet. It’s about the cozy web, the dark web, the dark forest, the clear net, the dark net, and a new social world emerging around us. This is the Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Internet

205 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Kaleigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty repetitive collection of essays seemingly solicited to back up and expand upon Strickler's original (and short) "dark forest" email. The collection could have been better edited to control for this and to make it seem like a more intentional curated and diverse anthology. To be fair, I just don't think the dark forest theory is something I find compelling or interesting.

This is also the second book I've read attempting to apply Liu Cixin's sci-fi "dark forest" theory about the universe (i.e., that we've never met aliens because all aliens are hiding from other possible adversarial aliens) to specifically Web 2.0 (in a sense, that the internet is a dark forest full of possible adversaries so individuals retreat into the perceived safety of isolation). The first is Konior's The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet which takes a more academic approach. Neither of them seem to reference each other or acknowledge that the other exists—I'm not sure which came first or if there's a conflict there which is I guess a funny coincidence that they both exist in their own dark forest.

[Tiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a status check on the Matrix, this is the book you want to read. For real though, I wish they’d printed more than 3,000 copies because this is sort of a must-read for anyone who’s even attempting to imagine a better internet. I needed this book at this time in my life.

[Artur · Rating 3 out of 5]

està bé però prou repetitiu, estic content d'haver-ho piratejat i no haver pagat es 30 euros que val... sa teoria q proposa és interessant però sent que en gran mesura acaba sent una publicitat per ses comunitats des autors. Alhora, no deixa de ser una intelectualització de fenòmens que duen passant de fa temps, atorgant-los una transcendència que realment no tenen a lo q son bàsicament grups de discord I substacks de pagament... se me continua fent guai i inspirador i m'agraden ses teories q proposa, tot i així. Almenys no fan servir sa paraula "revolucionari" lol

[Brad Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remarkably unique. Firstly, reading this makes me realise there is a lot going on in the world I'm totally blind to, internet culture wise. This book is a collection of essays written by people who study and comment on particular aspects of internet culture. It dials into this idea—each essay sort of builds on the other—the notion that the internet is kind of broken, and that there are new ideas about how to use it unfolding. The first problem is that the clear-net, the one indexed by algorithms and searchable has made the internet a really hostile place (e.g. The dark forest theory). And so, it has driven people to create these little Cozyweb versions of it where things are unfolding in little hidden communities.

The book is really fascinating and full of really clever ideas. I think if you like the podcast Doomscroll you will really like this. I felt very uncool reading it. It reminds me of zine culture, 2600 underground meetings in the 90’s, and probably, cyberterrorism.

[Brian Enigma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of essays about the increasing enshittification of social media platforms circa 2019, isolation of individuals, finding community, and escaping into “the cozy web.” It feels even more relevant today, with recent announcements by Meta and the collapse of X-Twitter. It smokes a little too much of the web3/crypto/blockchain Koolaid in the middle, which can be skimmed right through.

[phillip jane stressman · Rating 1 out of 5]

slop. DNF

[Diana Biggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only do I recommend this anthology, I highly recommend looking into the work of each contributor 🙏🏼💫

[Leslie Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

buenos textos, amo el intenet theory cuando es optimista. Salvo lo repetitivo de algunos. De cierta manera todo parece un ruego para suscribirnos a los substacks de estas personas.