"The internet has become an extractive and fragile monoculture. But we can revitalize it using lessons learned by ecologists."Establishes the metaphor with a story about “scientific forestry” - the late 18th century growth hacking technique that "made timber yields easier to count, predict and harvest, and meant owners no longer rel…

This article had me hooked from Line One - "Remember when the internet used to be fun?" - because I do. It tracks how "ironic, meme culture" (d)evolved from when "There was an assumption that everyone in the room “got it,” that they understood who was being satirized—the racists and the homophobes—and that everything was j…