A lot of the people designing America’s technology and close to the center of American power believe some deeply weird shit. We already talked to journalist Gil Duran about the Nerd Reich, the rise of the destructive anti-democratic ideology. In this episode, we dive into another weird section of Silicon Valley: the cult of Rationalism.
Max Read, the journalist behind the Read Max Substack, is here to help us through it. Rationalism is responsible for a lot more than you might think and Read lays out how it’s influenced the world we live in today and how it created the environment for a cult that’s got a body count.
Defining rationalism: “Something between a movement, a community, and a self-help program.”
Eliezer Yudkowsky and the dangers of AI
What the hell is AGI?
The Singleton Guide to Global Governance
The danger of thought experiments
As always, follow the money
Vulgar bayesianism
What’s a Zizian?
Sith Vegans
SBF and Effective Altruism
