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The Digital Underworld & Dark Forest
It’s not the Dark Web, it’s not about bad things. It’s a sociocultural reaction creating thriving spaces and communities.
From the title of this article, you might be thinking it’s about nefarious doings on the Dark Web or cybercrime. But it is not. This is an article about what the Dark Forest is, why it’s a significant aspect of our digital worlds and the building of communities beyond generic social media platforms. It is an intriguing look at an evolving subculture that’s becoming more mainstream.
So what is the Dark Forest? It is a theory based on the science-fiction novel of the same name by Liu Cixin and applied to digital spaces and communities. The Dark Forest theory suggests that in the vastness of the universe (or in this case, the internet) every civilisation (user), makes two primary assumptions; survival is the primary need of all civilisations and they all keep growing and competing for resources.
Human cultures have long created underworld communities and cities, such as cave dwellings or the more incredible and labyrinthine underground cities from Derinkuyu to Coober Pedy. In a way, they reflect the creation of digital underworlds too.
