What it is
Moloch is a name for a trap: individually rational moves that add up to a collective outcome nobody chose and nobody wants. If you hold back and your competitor doesn’t, you lose, so everyone stops holding back. Arms races, attention-harvesting apps and races to the bottom on price all work like this.
Scott Alexander popularized the name in “Meditations on Moloch” (2014), borrowing the ancient god from Allen Ginsberg’s poem Howl. The point is that there may be no villain. The system selects against restraint.
How it shows up for me
It changed how I talk about tech companies. Some of the people inside them are kind. The race still makes them build things that hurt us. Blaming a person feels good; changing the incentives is what actually helps.