CZM Rewind: The Zizians: How Harry Potter Fanfic Inspired a Death Cult & The Zizians: Birth of a Cult Leader

Part One: Earlier this year a Border Patrol officer was killed in a shoot-out with people who have been described as members of a trans vegan AI death cult. But who are the Zizians, really? Robert sits down with David Gborie to trace their development, from part of the Bay Area Rationalist subculture to killers.

Part Two: Robert tells David Gborie about the early life of Ziz LaSota, a bright young girl from Alaska who came to the Bay Area with dreams of saving the cosmos or destroying it, all based on her obsession with Rationalist blogs and fanfic.

Sources:

1. https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
3. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infohazard
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
5. Wayback Machine
6. The Zizians
7. Spectral Sight
8. True Hero Contract
9. Schelling Orders – Sinceriously
10. Glossary – Sinceriously
11. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130330/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130302/https://sinceriously.fyi/glossary/#zentraidon
13. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130259/https://sinceriously.fyi/vampires-and-more-undeath/
14. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130316/https://sinceriously.fyi/net-negative/
15. https://web.archive.org/web/20230201130318/https://sinceriously.fyi/rationalist-fleet/
16. https://x.com/orellanin?s=21&t=F-n6cTZFsKgvr1yQ7oHXRg
17. https://zizians.info/
18. according to The Boston Globe
19. Inside the ‘Zizians’: How a cultish crew of radical vegans became linked to killings across the United States | The Independent
20. Silicon Valley ‘Rationalists’ Linked to 6 Deaths
21. The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians | WIRED
22. Good Group and Pasek’s Doom – Sinceriously
23. Glossary – Sinceriously
24. Mana – Sinceriously
25. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
26. The Zizian Facts - Google Docs
27. Several free CFAR summer programs on rationality and AI safety - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
28. This guy thinks killing video game characters is immoral | Vox
29. Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck
30. Eliezer Yudkowsky comments on On Terminal Goals and Virtue Ethics - LessWrong 2.0 viewer
31. Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried - Bloomberg
32. SquirrelInHell: Happiness Is a Chore
33. PLUM OF DISCORD — I Became a Full-time Internet Pest and May Not...
34. Roko Harassment of PlumOfDiscord Composited – Sinceriously
35. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
36. Infohazardous Glossary – Sinceriously
37. SquirrelInHell-Decision-Theory-and-Suicide.pdf - Google Drive
38. The Matrix is a System – Sinceriously
39. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
40. Intersex Brains And Conceptual Warfare – Sinceriously
41. A community alert about Ziz. Police investigations, violence, and… | by SefaShapiro | Medium
42. PLUM OF DISCORD (Posts tagged cw-abuse)
43. Timeline: Violence surrounding the Zizians leading to Border Patrol agent shooting

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