Dystopia Now

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Researcher and journalist Dylan Gyauch-Lewis joins us this week to discuss the views behind ongoing data center buildout for AI despite community resistance.
Find Dylan's work at the American Prospect and https://therevolvingdoorproject.org
Further Reading
Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The American Prospect: More AI Means More Cancer
 Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The Revolving Door Project: Support for Data Centers in Shor Supply

Find Jacob Silverman on Substack at https://substack.com/@jacobsilverman or Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/jacobsilverman.com 
Further Reading from Jacob
* The Shady Financial Past of a Major Trump Crypto Investor: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/andrei-grachev-dlw-labs-world-liberty-financial-trump/
* The President Took A $75 Million Bribe And We All Saw It: https://www.jacobsilverman.com/p/the-president-took-a-75-million-bribe 
 
Books Mentioned
Gilded Rage, Jacob Silverman
Easy Money, Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman
Survival of the Richest, Douglas Rushkoff
More Everything Forever, Adam Becker
The Technological Republic, Alex Karp

This week, we discussed the biography of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his brand of tech doomerism.
Further Reading
Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-and-the-unabomber

While profit motivates all companies under capitalism, why are the wealthiest tech companies so focused on AGI? This week, we dive into the relationships, ideologies, and claims behind the four biggest players claiming to build artificial general intelligence: Google DeepMind, OpenAI (partly owned by Microsoft), Anthropic, and Elon Musk's xAI.
Further Reading
https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/tescrealism-and-the-race-to-build

Book mentioned
The AI Con - Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

We're joined again by Dr. Alexander Thomas, author of The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism, to discuss current events and how the Extropians' libertarian transhumanist fantasies connect to today's efforts to meme right-wing authoritarianism into reality.
 
Books Mentioned
Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian

The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism by Alexander Thomas (open access)