Q & A Part 1 -- Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

This week we answered some questions from our Patreon supporters. It's like a mini episode on a bunch of different topics, including the worst book I've ever heard of. We covered Èmile's journey out of longtermism, Yudkowsky's Harry Potter fan fic, end-times narratives, and how we will one day beat the tech bros by withholding our labor.

If you'd like to hear part 2 become a subscriber here:

https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow

Articles Mentioned in This Episode and Further Reading

AI Ethics

• Louisiana is using a mysterious algorithm to decide who gets parole – The Verge https://www.theverge.com/news/647405/louisiana-tiger-algorithm-parole
• Why Sam Altman wants AI to say "please" and "thank you" – Quartz https://qz.com/open-ai-sam-altman-chatgpt-gpt4-please-thank-you-1851777047

TESCREAL and End Times

• End Times: How Fascism, the Far Right, Trump, and Musk are converging – The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk
• Overview of TESCREAL (by Èmile) The acronym behind our wildest AI dreams and nightmares – Truthdig https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-acronym-behind-our-wildest-ai-dreams-and-nightmares/

Effective Altruism & Scandals

• The sexual harassment scandal tearing Effective Altruism apart – TIME https://time.com/6252617/effective-altruism-sexual-harassment/
• Sam Bankman-Fried funded 'woke shit' for transactional purposes, prosecutors allege – VICE https://www.vice.com/en/article/sam-bankman-fried-funded-woke-shit-for-transactional-purposes-prosecutors-allege/
• The rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried – The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/23/sam-bankman-fried-rise-and-fall-details
• Defective Altruism – Current Affairs https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2022/09/defective-altruism
• Effective Altruism's bait-and-switch: From global poverty to AI doom – Techdirt https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/29/effective-altruisms-bait-and-switch-from-global-poverty-to-ai-doomerism/

Neoliberalism

• Neoliberalism's World Order – Review of Quinn Slobodian's Globalists – Dissent https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/neoliberalism-world-order-review-quinn-slobodian-globalists/
• The Bastards of Neoliberalism – New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/04/the-bastards-of-neoliberalism
• The Geneva School, Hayek, and Neoliberal Nationalism – Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2022/11/neoliberalism-geneva-school-nationalism-mises-hayek
• Review of Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian – The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/books/review/hayeks-bastards-quinn-slobodian.html
• Race Science, Neoliberalism & Hayek – Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2025/04/race-science-neoliberalism-hayek-slobodian

Rationalism

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

Transhumanism

• Beyond our ape-brained meat sacks: Can transhumanism save us? – The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/04/beyond-our-ape-brained-meat-sacks-can-transhumanism-save-our-species
• The Frozen Father of Modern Transhumanism: Upwingers and Downwingers – VICE https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-frozen-father-of-moden-transhumanism/