Episodios
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This episode we began with a discussion of Peter Singer and eugenics ideas in the Effective Altruism community. And more Sam Altman-- his firing at Open AI, his doomsday prepping and his version of utopia.
Sam Altman & OpenAI
Moore’s Law for Everything – Sam Altman’s Blog OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Is a Survivalist Prepper – Futurism Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny – The New Yorker The Most Powerful Man in AI – New York MagazineOpenAI Controversy
The Real Story Behind Sam Altman's Firing From OpenAI – WSJ Former OpenAI Employee Sounds Alarm on Altman – Futurism Sam Altman Reinstated at OpenAI – The GuardianTech Utopias & Praxis
Altman-Backed Praxis Eyes Kyiv and Athens for Tech Utopia – Bloomberg Praxis: Tech Dystopia as the Next America – The Nerd ReichScience, Ethics & Philosophy
Dyson Sphere – Wikipedia Simulation Hypothesis – Wikipedia The Matrix as Reality: Simulation Hypothesis Explained – VoxLongevity & Biohacking
Sam Altman Invested $180M in Anti-Aging Startup Retro Biosciences – MIT Technology ReviewEthics, Exploitation & Effective Altruism
Red Cobalt: Mining in the Congo – NPR Shrimp Welfare Project – Official Site Introducing the Shrimp Welfare Project – Effective Altruism Forum Against Speciesism – Jacobin -
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This week, we begin to explore the mystery that is Sam Altman of Open AI. We cover the AI Doomer coup, Sam's Worldcoin metal orb that scans your retinas, his friendship with Peter Thiel, and his views on restructuring our government with AItopia. We also talked about the weirdo tech billionaire plot to do a Mars colonization trial run on Greenland. An hour in, we had barely scratched the surface of Sam, so we'll be back with a Part 2.
Further Reading on Sam Altman:The Inside Story of Sam Altman’s Ouster—and Reinstatement—at OpenAI – TIME
https://time.com/6551117/sam-altman-openai-ouster-return/Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Launches Amid Privacy Concerns – The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/24/23805254/worldcoin-sam-altman-iris-scanning-launch-privacySam Altman Has a Big, Scary Plan for the World – The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/08/sam-altman-worldcoin-openai-ai-ethics/674928/Sam Altman’s Secret Fundraising Spree – The Information
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/sam-altmans-secret-fundraising-spreeOpenAI Drama: What Really Happened with Sam Altman – New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/technology/openai-sam-altman-chaos.htmlThe Worldcoin Controversy Explained – MIT Technology Review
Praxis & Greenland Articles
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/25/1076412/worldcoin-biometric-id-sam-altman/Greenland 'Freedom City'? Rich donors push Trump for a tech hub up north – Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-freedom-city-rich-donors-push-trump-tech-hub-up-north-2025-04-10/I Went to Greenland to Try to Buy It – TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/15/i-went-to-greenland-to-try-to-buy-it-meet-the-founder-who-wants-to-re-create-mars-on-earth/Peter Thiel Thinks the Next Great City Should Be in Greenland – InsideHook
https://www.insidehook.com/internet/peter-thiel-praxis-next-great-city-greenlandCybercity of the Future: How an Ambitious 29-Year-Old Plans to Build Praxis – NY Post
https://nypost.com/2025/04/06/world-news/robo-cops-ai-schooling-food-from-3-d-printers-and-post-work-future-are-anticipated-for-praxians/Tech Utopian Project Praxis Gets $525 Million in Commitments – Wall Street Journal
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-utopian-project-praxis-gets-525-million-in-commitments-for-planned-heroic-city-f4623e98Altman-Backed Praxis Scouts Kyiv, Athens for Tech Utopia Base – Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-08/altman-backed-praxis-scouts-kyiv-athens-for-tech-utopia-base -
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This week we talked about Curtis Yarvin and his vision of CEO/Monarchies, Network States for Tech Bros-- in the US. And Ezra Klein's more minor tech backed reforms.
How much democracy should we have?
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This week we talked about the "Abundance Agenda" and it's roots in the Effective Altruism movement.
A network of think tanks, Silicon Valley billionaires, and centrist pundits are getting all riled up about zoning ordinances, and possibly trying to take over the Democratic Party? Oh boy.
We explore the dark side of Effective Altruism, men's rights activists, IQ Realists, "race science," eugenicists and more lurking in a movement where the biggest scoundrels in society are mixing with Vox writers- EA! This episode was a wild ride, let us know what you think.
We'll be back with Thiel Part 2 next week but we had to know-- why did an Atlantic writer podcast with a Nazi?
Further reading
By Èmile:
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-eugenics-scientific-racism
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/12/opinion/richard-hanania-eugenics-billionaires.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/richard-hanania-origins-of-woke-book/675348/
https://jacobin.com/2023/01/effective-altruism-longtermism-nick-bostrom-racism
https://theintercept.com/2019/09/06/exxon-mobil-progressive-policy-institute-climate/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ruben-gallego-crypto-digital-assets-andreessen-yglesias-1235260013/
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In this episode, we explore Peter Thiel's villain origin story. From his budding commitment to being an edgelord at Stanford to developing the theory that girls ruined everything by voting. Seasteading, blood transfusions, the weird incel parties he throws with Curtis Yarvin. We've got it all. Next week we'll cover the NeoReactionary movement in detail.
Futher reading: https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/owned-book-peter-thiel-trump-tech-silicon-valley-1235276868/
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets?srsltid=AfmBOop8TkGouVZ72xamuuLVjtZjqQ8rz2G_SBCykFPkOpQGDtS77-j4
https://www.ft.com/content/02217acf-ac64-49c2-acd5-ef4f107f014c
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This week we are joined by Paris Marx, host of the podcast Tech Won't Save Us and a tech critic, journalist, author, and international speaker.
We talked about Silicon Valley's changing influence in politics, climate policy, and about reasons for optimism as we think about how to confront Musk and Co. in the political arena.
This is somewhat of a sister episode to our conversation last week with Jacob Silverman about the tech right that explores the political ideologies of the tech billionaires shaping our country, including within the Democratic Party.
To support us on Patreon (and get bonus eps plus a download of our intro song) go here:
patreon.com/DystopiaNow
Please note we generally record these episodes a few days before publishing so Tesla story was still evolving.
Further reading:
https://parismarx.com/
https://www.disconnect.blog/
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/g-s1-9545/ai-brings-soaring-emissions-for-google-and-microsoft-a-major-contributor-to-climate-change
https://www.wired.com/story/true-cost-generative-ai-data-centers-energy/
https://theconversation.com/data-centre-emissions-are-soaring-its-ai-or-the-climate-240137
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2795-road-to-nowhere?srsltid=AfmBOor_bXPpd8aqF9_mHCdTCfJsbfp-V1qFE-ERNFyRVF2RVRfYj365
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnvze9dzq8vo
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/business/elon-musk-tesla-violence-protests-vandalism.html
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For this bonus episode we were joined by comedian Kenice Mobley to talk about the different space futures Bezos and Musk have in mind.
Bezos wants us to live in cylinders, Musk wants us to nuke Mars, but both of them want a future where we're all digital beings maximizing value. Some of the wildest information we've talked about so far.
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This week our guest is Jacob Silverman, and independent journalist who has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Slate, The New Yorker & The New Republic. He's the co-author of "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud."
We talked about the growing right wing movement in the tech industry. From the PayPal mafia to President Sh*tcoin today, we dive deep into how a few billionaires are influencing policy from DOGE to how cities treat our unhoused neighbors.
Sorry for slight reduction in audio quality this week, we had some issues with our recording software we will fix for next week! This is a fantastic interview you don't want to miss.
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This week we welcomed special guest Albert Fox Cahn who is the Executive Director of S.T.O.P. (the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project). We talked about how AI is impacting policing and pricing. We also returned to the subject of Elon's ketamine addiction.
Special thanks to Deon Wolf who has been helping with our short videos on instagram and youtube.
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This week, Kate and Emile dive deeper into Elon Musk's ideology and explore the debate between two Silicon Valley camps, the AI Doomers and the AI Accelerationists.
We explore the effective accelerationism or e/acc movement, a guy named Beff Jezos? Marc Andreessen's Techno Optimist Manifesto, and what Google founder Larry Page really believes.
We also talked about what motivated Emile to do Ph.D research on human extinction.
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Why is Elon trying so hard to dismantle the administrative state? This may be an answer you haven't heard yet.
This week, Emile and Kate host journalist Gil Duran (New Republic, The Nerd Reich) for a discussion about Network States, aka libertarian post democracy colonies that have become a popular idea among tech billionaires.
From seasteading to the California Forever tech utopia, from Mars to maybe... the entire US, these guys have their sites set on a feudal structure that makes an Ayn Rand novel look quaint.
If you enjoy the episode, please subscribe. An if you prefer to listen in podcast form, we're also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As a brand new show, we really appreciate your spreading the word.
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In our first episode we explore the question on everyone's mind: what the hell is Elon Musk doing?
Well, the answer may be, trying (or pretending to try), winning a robot battle 10 billion years in the future when humanity is replaced with digital beings.
Tune in to learn about the ideologies of longtermism and transhumanism and how they may be influencing Elon's actions in the Trump administration.
