Campfires in Dark Forests

Dark forests like newsletters and podcasts are growing areas of activity. As are other dark forests, like Slack channels, private Instagrams, invite-only message boards, text groups, Snapchat, WeChat, and on and on. This is where Facebook is pivoting with Groups (and trying to redefine what the word “privacy” means in the process).

These are all spaces where depressurized conversation is possible because of their non-indexed, non-optimized, and non-gamified environments. The cultures of those spaces have more in common with the physical world than the internet.

Source: The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet – OneZero

Via: The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

This dark forest metaphor reminds me of the cave, campfire, and watering hole archetypal learning spaces.

First, and make no mistake here, all three sacred learning spaces will have analogs in cyberspace. If they don’t, then cyberspace will cease to exist as a domain of interaction among humans. Those using the new media will create their own analogs for these learning places, even if they are not designed into the system.

Campfires in Cyberspace: Primordial Metaphors for Learning in the 21st Century

We humans will always be making caves and campfires, both in meatspace and online. As surveillance capitalism toxifies our public watering holes, campfires in dark forests become more popular.