Dystopia Now
Dystopia Now
Podcast Description
Dystopia Now is a show where a comedian (Kate Willett) and an academic (Emile Torres) explore the philosophies and religions of Silicon Valley and tech billionaires shaping our country, our world, and our future.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on the philosophies and religions of Silicon Valley, examining how they shape societal values and future trajectories through discussions on topics like effective accelerationism, libertarianism, and transhumanism. Episodes delve into contemporary figures such as Elon Musk, exploring ideologies like longtermism, with specific discussions including debates between AI Doomers and Accelerationists, as well as the implications of Network States envisioned by tech billionaires.
Dystopia Now is a show where a comedian (Kate Willett) and an academic (Emile Torres) explore the philosophies and religions of Silicon Valley and tech billionaires shaping our country, our world, and our future.
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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
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