Dystopia Now18 Jul 2025

Mind Uploading and Life Extension

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This week, we explored the tech billionaire fixation with cryonics, mind uploading and life extension. We're just a couple of decel deathists! (You'll see what we mean)

In the intro this week, we talked about Superman's critique of tech billionaires, Mountainhead, and we read a very special poem.

Plus, a Meta AI data center in Georgia leads to rationing of water for local residents. Who needs a shower when you can have a bad search engine?

Episoder(68)

Bickering Over Galaxies: "AI 2040" and the Pursuit of Cosmic Utopia

This week, Kate and Émile discuss AI 2040, a new document by some of the same authors behind AI 2027. The authors argue, if AI companies come to their senses and prioritize AI safety, the result could...

24 Jul 0s

UNLOCKED: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout

Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! On this now-unlocked episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zephyr Teachout about surve...

15 Jul 59min

Why Life on Mars Would Probably Suck

We return from our brief summer break chatting about Émile's latest article of interest, "Here's Why SpaceX's Mission is Bullshit" in the wake of its recent IPO and question the assumptions underlying...

9 Jul 51min

Protopia Futures (ft. Monika Bielskyte)

Does fiction inform what we think the future should look like? Sci-fi and futurism has typically told us the inevitability of technology and dystopian cyberpunk imaginaries. Monika Bielskyte joins us ...

19 Jun 1h 2min

Pope Leo's Anti-AI Encyclical

This week, we go over the merits and demerits of the Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas and its co-presentation with Christopher Olah of Anthropic, the company branding itself as mos...

11 Jun 39min

An Independent for Nebraska (ft. Austin Ahlman)

Could a populist, independent candidate win an election in the most Republican part of Nebraska's 1st Congressional District? In a time when the Republican and Democratic Party are both notoriously co...

4 Jun 48min

Florida Man Runs for Congress as a Democratic Socialist (ft. Oliver Larkin)

Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! Oliver Larkin, activist, union organizer, and Democratic Socialist, joins us this week to discuss his run for election to the U.S. House as a Flo...

28 Mai 48min

PATREON PREVIEW: Surveillance Pricing with Zephyr Teachout

Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! On this special Patreon episode, we talked to antitrust hero and Fordham University law professor Zep...

21 Mai 11min