Briahna Joy Gray and I Discuss AI, Chomsky, and the Apocalypse on the Bad Faith Podcast
Hello, friends! One last post before the New Year:
I recently made an appearance on the Bad Faith podcast hosted by Briahna Joy Gray. We spent the first hour talking about Noam Chomsky’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and other predators like Lawrence Krauss, drawing from my newsletter article on the topic. The second hour (yes, it was a marathon!) explored one of my academic passions: the ethics of human extinction, with a focus on the rise of Silicon Valley pro-extinctionism.
If you only have time to listen to an hour, I’d recommend the second half. Here’s a clip from the interview:
A longer clip, which I haven’t yet watched to the end, is here:
I don’t know if the entire episode will be uploaded to YouTube. The full video is behind a paywall; same with the audio-only version. If you have the money, consider supporting Briahna’s work!
What isn’t paywalled is the latest — and last of the year — episode of Dystopia Now with me and comedian Kate Willett. We discuss some hilariously inaccurate predictions that people made about what would happen in or by 2025 — once again drawing from a newsletter article that you read here first!
You can listen to the episode here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/distant-future-146856668.
Incidentally, I hadn’t seen the video below before Kate and I recorded our episode, but it’s worth watching. Elon Musk is truly one of the biggest bullshitters on the planet right now. Like, I’m truly in awe at how confidently he makes bold predictions that consistently turn out to be false, and at how millions of people — and the media — continue to take him seriously. What an absolute joke the guy is!
See also this tweet I came across today:
Btw, if you’re looking for new music, I recorded four songs over the first couple of weeks in December. In a past life, I sold a bunch of songs to MTV, some of which ended up on shows like Queer Eye and in GoPro commercials like this one. (I am technically still a Viacom employee, and every 6 months get a modest paycheck from them!) Now, music is just a fun little hobby for the evenings after I run out of energy to read and write. You are more than welcome to think these songs are terrible, of course! :-) Feel free to share any art projects that you’ve been working on, too. For me, art and academics have always gone together.
I hope all of you have a wonderful, relaxing, peaceful rest of the year. Much friendly love to everyone, and see you on the other side!
Fantastic conversation. Your insights are terrific and desperately needed. I can’t tell you have many “smart” people (academics, scientists) I know who buy into this nonsense and have no idea what Transhumanists believe. I think they would be shocked. After hearing this, I’m more convinced than ever that our tech overlords are a bunch of nutters, completely divorced from humanity and physical reality and even their own creations which will not “upload consciousness” or make trillions of fake people across the galaxy or the other stupid sci-fi garbage they say it will.
This conversation on Bad Faith is like a little holiday gift. Two of my favorite brilliant voices discussing all the things I'm curious about but don't have anybody to ask. Well done. Thank you.