Dystopia Now

Subscribe to our Patreon for bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Philosopher and filmmaker Alexander Thomas joins us again as consciousness and "AI welfare" become talking points in the AI world. We discourse about discourse — how TESCREAL ideologies framed debate and criticism in the terms of AI companies from the start. Find more from Alex at https://posthumanfutures.com/ and his short film Beverley (2015) on YouTube. Further Reading NYT, "Religious Scholars Met with Anthropic", https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/anthropic-claude-morals-ai.html The Economist, "Effective altruism is this century's biggest idea", https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/10/01/effective-altruism-is-this-centurys-biggest-idea Timnit Gebru & Emily Bender, "Forget 'superintelligence': error-prone AI nearly sparked world war three this month", https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/01/forget-superintelligence-error-prone-ai-nearly-sparked-world-war-iii-this-month Alexander Thomas, The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism: Techno-human Evolution and Advanced Capitalism (2024), https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-politics-and-ethics-of-transhumanism  

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow!  We interviewed author and journalist Ellen Huet about her recent book Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (October 2025), exploring the Orgasmic Meditation (OM) start-up cult OneTaste.  In the full episode for subscribers, Kate describes her run-ins with OneTaste from the outer orbit. Content Advisory: This episode includes candid discussion of sexual topics and references to sexual crimes and coercion.

Émile and Kate comment on the recent flurry of news about AI safety. Further Reading Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney, What To Read To Stay Grounded Amidst AI Doomerism, 2026 https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/what-to-read-to-stay-grounded-amidst-ai-doomerism/ Timnit Gebru, Effective Altruism Is Pushing a Dangerous Brand of 'AI Safety', 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/effective-altruism-artificial-intelligence-sam-bankman-fried/

Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! This week, we're joined by comedian Mary Houlihan: we talk about Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 'wunderkind' in charge of Situational Awareness, a hedge fund named for his 2024 essay speculating on AGI and which recently lost $35 billion. We trace the networks of connections and massive amounts of money in the AI, tech, and Effective Altruism scenes. Find Mary's podcast on YouTube and more at linktr.ee/maryhoulie. This episode was informed by David Morris's article "Son of Sam: Aschenbrenner was SBF 2.0," found on his Substack Dark Markets. Further Reading - The original Situational Awareness essay by Leopold Aschenbrenner: https://situational-awareness.ai/  - David Morris, "Son of Sam: Aschenbrenner was SBF 2.0," davidzmorris.substack.com/p/son-of-sam-aschenbrenner-was-sbf - Jeff Brown, "Situationally Unaware," https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/why-leopold-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness-hedge-fund-imploded.html 

This week with comedian Alaina Bamfield, we check in on ChatGPT's joke-writing capabilities, Émile's former anarchoprimitivist sympathies, medical skepticism, and whether we might have made enough technological advances. Alaina Bamfield is a New York based stand up comedian from Williamston, Michigan. Check out Alaina @alainabamfield on social media and her comedy special "Untouchable" on YouTube. Editor's note: This episode was recorded August 3 — toward the end of the episode, we reference DSA endorsee Francesca Hong's lead in the polls for the gubernatorial primary run in Wisconsin, but this was based on falsified information and on August 11, Hong lost by a margin of 0.5%. Tech dystopia continues!

In this episode, we chat with Cory Doctorow, science fiction author, journalist, and commentator on technology. We discuss the phenomenon of platform enshittification, its relationship to an unregulated tech industry and unorganized workers, monopsony power of platforms, centaurs and reverse centaurs, and his take on AI superintelligence and recursive self-improvement. Find Cory Doctorow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation eff.org, his blog https://pluralistic.net/ and check out his latest two books The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI and Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI, June 2026, https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621575/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/ Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, October 2025, https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

This week we're joined by Vu, an undergraduate at Stanford University and representative of Stanford SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) to discuss the role of technology in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, student activism at Stanford including the recent commencement walkout, and the experience of students looking toward careers in tech. Find more about Stanford SJP on Instagram @stanfordsjp. Further Reading Stanford SJP Link In Bio: https://lnk.bio/stanfordsjp Stanford Daily, June 2026, Google CEO addresses graduates amid student walkout Bay Area Current, Feb 2026, Pro-Palestine Stanford Students Await Trial Verdict  NYT, August 2026, Gen Z Fell Out of Love With Work. I Don't Blame Them.

This week, Kate and Émile discuss AI 2040, a new document by some of the same authors behind AI 2027. The authors argue, if AI companies come to their senses and prioritize AI safety, the result could be a superintelligence that brings about a utopian world of immortality and space colonization and property rights. We dismantle the silly arguments in AI 2040 with a good dose of mockery. Further Reading Thomas Larsen, Romeo Dean, Brendan Halstead, Eli Lifland, Ryan Greenblatt, Daniel Kokotajlo. AI 2040: Plan A, https://ai-2040.com Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, Romeo Dean. AI 2027, https://ai-2027.com/

Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! On this now-unlocked episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout about surveillance pricing and surveillance wages.  From airlines charging us more to fly home if they see we've recently searched "funeral arrangements" to rideshare companies paying less per ride if your bank account is low, we explored the present and future possibilities of data as a tool for economic and labor exploitation. Book Mentioned Karen Levy, Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance Further Reading FTC Report, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-surveillance-pricing-study-indicates-wide-range-personal-data-used-set-individualized-consumer ACLU Report, https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/surveillance-pricing Electronic Frontier Foundation on surveillance pricing, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/fight-surveillance-pricing-we-need-privacy-first Maryland ban on surveillance pricing, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/29/maryland-grocery-stores-ban-surveillance-pricing New York legislation, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/politics/2026/05/19/surveillance-pricing- Cory Doctorow on surveillance wages, https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2026-04-06-empiricism-washing-veena-dubal-d63fef485503

We return from our brief summer break chatting about Émile's latest article of interest, "Here's Why SpaceX's Mission is Bullshit" in the wake of its recent IPO and question the assumptions underlying transhumanism for space exploration. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/heres-why-spacexs-mission-is-bullshit https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/is-elon-musk-a-mass-murderer-on-par  Books Mentioned Adam Becker, More Everything Forever