In particular, it seems to me that centralization is almost a law of the universe (or at least a tendency). Lemmy may start decentralized, with dozens or hundreds of meaningfully-sized instances, but it’s easy to imagine a not-far future where most everyone has settled on just a handful of instances (or even just one).
I don’t mean to just be a pessimist here. I’m sure I’m far from the first person to wonder about this, and I’m curious whether there are ideas of how to counterbalance the tendency toward centralization.
Centralization is a byproduct of monopolism and part of how modern capitalism has programmed is to think. It’s hideously baked into the modern internet as it’s mostly post-regulation. I blame asymmetrical data links while I yell at children to get off my lawn.
New things come from open marketplaces of ideas. I’ll put myself in the optimistic category, but occasionally I have to put myself back here lol