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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)
The fediverse is a dark forest. Every instance is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, a shitposter or a sincereposter, a delicate liberal or a Hans from Stuttgart, a fairy or a dragn—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. 🧵 (4/3)
