But if you take it at a larger scale, it is true that users are neither created nor destroyed - they simply convert to and from non-users. So there is a slower decay, which works because you cannot gain users simply by switching them around with other people.
You could argue that population increase would balance it, but the population cannot keep expanding forever. You could say that we could expand civilisation into space, but then you hit the problem of information - E2 would cease to function with the internet stretched across our solar system. The way I see it, there are three possible futures:
- Big Crunch. Gravity starts to pull nodes together into broader and broader metanodes. The end is swift as the metanodes merge. In the last few seconds, the last few nodes are swallowed into one massive metanode.
- Big Rip. More and more nodes cause E2 to expand exponentially. Stuff will stop operating, slowly the fabric of Everything will be ripped apart.
- Heat Death. The reputation of nodes slowly settles out to -2. Everything slowly drifts on, getting dimmer and dimmer, then slowly whimpering out.
What joys await us?