Dystopia Now

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

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)

Welcome to 2026! This week, we took a look at imperialism and how the rotating cast of billionaires discussed on the show are more involved than meets the eye. FURTHER READING: Émile's article "Are You Suffering from Crisis Fatigue?": https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/are-you-suffering-from-crisis-fatigue Gil Duran's article on the Network State and Venezuela (The Nerd Reich): https://www.thenerdreich.com/network-state-comes-for-venezuela/ Prospera: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/magazine/prospera-honduras-crypto.html Honduras: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/04/trump-venezuela-maduro-pardon-honduras.html Greenland: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-freedom-city-rich-donors-push-trump-tech-hub-up-north-2025-04-10/ AND https://www.insidehook.com/internet/peter-thiel-praxis-next-great-city-greenland AND https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html Pardons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2025/12/10/trumps-clemency-machine-deserves-more-right-wing-scrutiny/ AND https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-pro-crypto-or-pro-crime

Is AGI right around the corner, again? How's the AI bubble doing? What happened to climate activism? We're closing out the year with a round up of the many predictions made about technology by 2025 and share some of our own guesses. Support the show on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow Further Reading Émile's rundown of 2025 predictions: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/what-people-thought-would-happen NYT on the AI bubble: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/business/the-ai-boom-economy.html Book mentioned: The Discovery of the Future - H.G. Wells

This week, we're joined by Keira Havens, director of Citizens' Impeachment and former scientist to discuss Jeffery Epstein's transhumanist, eugenicist beliefs, their roots in hierarchy, and his influence in funding scientific research. Further reading: TBA