Suppose a vast number of instances distributed throughout the internet, on the order of the number of observable domains. Lots and lots of them. Those instances make up the body of a federated society. Federated Sociology is the study of the nature of this super-society🧵​(1/3)

Consider the following axioms:
- All instances desire to stay alive.
- There is no way to know if other instances can or will destroy you if given a chance.
- Lacking assurances, the safest option for any instance is to annihilate others before they have a chance to do the same. 🧵​(2/3)

Any federating instance would view any other as an inevitable threat, and thus destroy any nascent life that makes its presence known.

As a result, the fediverse would be relatively silent, without evidence of any intelligent alien life, as in a "dark forest" filled with "armed hunter(s) stalking through the trees like a ghost" 🧵​(3/3)

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yeah i read The Dark Forest and you should too. also the 🧵​formatting was done purely for comedic effect

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