Show Notes
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This week we explore the weird world of Mark Zuckerberg and billionaire bunkers. FURTHER READING: Meta, Zuckerberg, and AI Meta Q2 earnings beat forecasts, pushes toward AI "personal superintelligence" deadline.com/2025/07/meta-q2-earnings-beat-forecasts-ai-personal-superintelligence-1236474506/ Inside Meta's plans for a new AI lab focused on superintelligence nytimes.com/2025/06/10/technology/meta-new-ai-lab-superintelligence.html Meta's growing dominance in AI bbc.com/news/technology-64075067 Zuckerberg responds to Cambridge Analytica scandal theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/21/mark-zuckerberg-response-facebook-cambridge-analytica How Facebook contributed to genocide in Myanmar systemicjustice.org/article/facebook-and-genocide-how-facebook-contributed-to-genocide-in-myanmar-and-why-it-will-not-be-held-accountable/ Zuckerberg grilled in Congress on Facebook's origins washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/04/11/channeling-the-social-network-lawmaker-grills-zuckerberg-on-his-notorious-beginnings/ Zuckerberg's Hawaii Estate and Land Development Mark Zuckerberg's Hawaii compound includes burial grounds and escape hatch wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-secretive-hawaii-compound-burial-ground/ What we know about Zuckerberg's Hawaii estate wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-inside-hawaii-compound/ Zuckerberg's land deals in Hawaii raise questions ft.com/content/851e7707-1ca3-4fa9-9719-05b66ad5c5cc Hawaii Governor's housing and development strategy governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Housing-2.pdf East Solano and YIMBY California Forever's East Solano city plan faces delay nytimes.com/2024/07/22/business/economy/california-forever-solano-county-city-on-hold.html YIMBY group's support for the East Solano Plan cayimby.org/news-events/statement-in-support-of-the-east-solano-plan/ Tech and Trump Big Tech to work with Trump administration on digital health ecosystem techcrunch.com/2025/07/30/big-tech-to-work-with-trump-administration-to-build-digital-health-ecosystem/ Trump, RFK Jr., and tech companies' digital health ambitions apnews.com/article/trump-ai-rfk-jr-health-tech-fa73703bd1fd557c787ef0b590e151f1 Migrant surveillance expands under new Trump plan theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/27/migrant-surveillance-trump Palantir and Trump plan to centralize Americans' data nytimes.com/2025/05/30/technology/trump-palantir-data-americans.html Trump administration shared IRS data with ICE propublica.org/article/trump-irs-share-tax-records-ice-dhs-deportations Gaza and Media Accountability Claims of no starvation in Gaza disputed by data and witnesses pbs.org/newshour/world/israels-leader-claims-no-one-in-gaza-is-starving-data-and-witnesses-disagree New York Times coverage of Gaza starvation nytimes.com/2025/07/24/world/middleeast/gaza-starvation.html NYT public relations statement on Gaza coverage x.com/NYTimesPR/status/1950311365756817690 NYT walks back Gaza baby starvation story after pushback truthout.org/articles/nyt-walks-back-story-on-gaza-baby-starved-by-israel-after-zionist-pushback/ Climate Who is hastening the apocalypse and why bbc.com/future/article/20211014-agents-of-doom-who-is-hastening-the-apocalypse-and-why Limiting global warming to 1.5°C could save billions from extreme heat news.exeter.ac.uk/research/limiting-global-warming-to-1-5c-would-save-billions-from-dangerously-hot-climate/
More from Dystopia Now
Subscribe to our Patreon for bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! 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
Subscribe to our Patreon for the FULL episode and more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! We interviewed author and journalist Ellen Huet about her recent book Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult (October 2025), exploring the Orgasmic Meditation (OM) start-up cult OneTaste. In the full episode for subscribers, Kate describes her run-ins with OneTaste from the outer orbit. Content Advisory: This episode includes candid discussion of sexual topics and references to sexual crimes and coercion.
Émile and Kate comment on the recent flurry of news about AI safety. Further Reading Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna and Decca Muldowney, What To Read To Stay Grounded Amidst AI Doomerism, 2026 https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/what-to-read-to-stay-grounded-amidst-ai-doomerism/
Subscribe to our Patreon for more bonus content at patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow! This week, we're joined by comedian Mary Houlihan: we talk about Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 'wunderkind' in charge of Situational Awareness, a hedge fund named for his 2024 essay speculating on AGI and which recently lost $35 billion. We trace the networks of connections and massive amounts of money in the AI, tech, and Effective Altruism scenes. Find Mary's podcast on YouTube and more at linktr.ee/maryhoulie. This episode was informed by David Morris's article "Son of Sam: Aschenbrenner was SBF 2.0," found on his Substack Dark Markets. Further Reading - The original Situational Awareness essay by Leopold Aschenbrenner: https://situational-awareness.ai/ - David Morris, "Son of Sam: Aschenbrenner was SBF 2.0," davidzmorris.substack.com/p/son-of-sam-aschenbrenner-was-sbf - Jeff Brown, "Situationally Unaware," https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/why-leopold-aschenbrenner-situational-awareness-hedge-fund-imploded.html
This week with comedian Alaina Bamfield, we check in on ChatGPT's joke-writing capabilities, Émile's former anarchoprimitivist sympathies, medical skepticism, and whether we might have made enough technological advances. Alaina Bamfield is a New York based stand up comedian from Williamston, Michigan. Check out Alaina @alainabamfield on social media and her comedy special "Untouchable" on YouTube. Editor's note: This episode was recorded August 3 — toward the end of the episode, we reference DSA endorsee Francesca Hong's lead in the polls for the gubernatorial primary run in Wisconsin, but this was based on falsified information and on August 11, Hong lost by a margin of 0.5%. Tech dystopia continues!