An “instance” is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There’s a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn’t really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn’t super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can’t ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.

Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity’s sake.

Rationalists are (supposedly) smart enough to figure out that Roko’s Basilisk wouldn’t waste cycles torturing someone in effigy if they decided they’re going to ignore the threat of Roko’s Basilisk. It’s the opposite of a catch-22.

Oh, I’m sure there are bots on Lemmy too. The general userbase, however - of people who are sick of Reddit’s BS - are also going to have very little tolerance for bot BS, so the instances are incentivized to try to keep bot activity down lest they be de-federated.

Nostalgia.