This is a two-part post. Click here for part one.

Prequel to the Dark Forest

Two weeks ago I wrote about the dark forest theory of the internet. I used the dark forest theory to explain why we’re afraid to be public online, and what could be lost as a result.

I first connected the dark forest theory with the internet when I had a strange realization earlier this year: that I knew how to be myself in real life, but I didn’t know how to be myself online.

In “real life” I’m a reasonably self-confident, 40-year-old human. …