Dystopia Now

They unpack a recent Molotov cocktail attack and the rhetoric that may have inspired it. They trace media coverage and legal questions around the incident. They debate whether property damage counts as violence and compare private threats to state violence. They interrogate apocalyptic AI visions, elite survivalist fantasies, and the social harms driven by corporate AI decisions.

Ben Tarnoff, writer and technologist exploring tech, labor, and the internet, and Quinn Slobodian, historian of neoliberalism, discuss Muskism versus Fordism. They cover vertical integration, state symbiosis, SpaceX’s military ties and market dominance. Conversation turns to Neuralink, AI safety strategy, long‑termist currents, pronatalism, and how South African roots shaped Fortress Futurism.

Alex Hanna, sociologist studying AI’s political economy, and Emily M. Bender, linguist who coined 'stochastic parrots,' discuss how AI hype is marketing and ideology. They map different AI systems, explain why chatbots seem intelligent, critique AGI talk and eugenicist echoes, and highlight labor, education, misinformation, and present harms from automation and hidden human work.

Journalist Taylor Lorenz joins us to discuss Section 230, how Big Tech is already tracking everything from eye movements to finger presses, the ongoing erosion of online privacy through right-wing tech policy and identity verification. Find Taylor on YouTube @TaylorLorenz and her publication UserMag on Substack. Further Reading Taylor Lorenz, Usermag, The Media Lied About the Social Media Addiction Trial Taylor Lorenz, The Biggest Lies About Section 230 Mick Masnick, TechDirt, Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They're Actually Cheering For KWCH, AI-powered cameras on Wichita school buses raise privacy concerns for one driver WBAL, 'Just holding a Doritos bag': Student handcuffed after AI system mistook bag of chips for weapon

David Ramírez Álvarez, secretary at the embassy of Cuba in the US, joins us to understand the escalating blockade on Cuba.

Find Part 2 coming soon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow This week we dive into Emile's area of expertise, the ethics of human extinction and how these ethics are shaping Silicon Valley. Further Reading https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/making-sense-of-the-human-extinction Books Mentioned The Last Man, Mary Shelley Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation, Émile Torres

Support the show at https://patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow 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

A deep dive into Ted Kaczynski’s life, from prodigy and Harvard experiments to remote cabin isolation. Exploration of his manifesto, anti-technology arguments, and links to early AI doom thinking. Discussion of how publication, linguistic clues, and family intervention led to capture. Debate over whether his critique aligns with environmentalism, anti-organization politics, or violent extremism.

A deep look at why four top tech firms are racing toward artificial general intelligence and the ideologies fueling them. They unpack transhumanist visions like brain interfaces, longevity projects, and uploads. The discussion also traces funding networks, long‑termist thinking, and how these moves could reshape institutions and geopolitics.