The Nerd Reich, by Gil Duran
First, huge congratulations to my friend Gil Duran for The Nerd Reich becoming an instant New York Times bestseller. That is an incredible achievement, made even more impressive by the fact that this is his debut book! (I’ve publish four so far, and never come close to this!)
I see it as a kind of moral duty to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of friends,1 but also, on a non-moral, purely strategic level, Gil’s immense success is good for everyone writing about Silicon Valley because the book highlights the various utopian-apocalyptic ideologies circulating among Valley dwellers. His success is a tide that will lift all other boats in the harbor.
I started reading The Nerd Reich the other day and can attest that it is absolutely fantastic. It’s a gripping page-turner that reads like a thriller. There is no fluff. Every sentence is well-crafted. Every point is terrifying. It’s honestly one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. If you haven’t bought a copy, I’d recommend doing so right away. So much of what’s happening in US politics and Silicon Valley will start to make (more) sense.
Gil’s thesis also dovetails nicely with my own focus on the TESCREAL ideologies — an acronym he mentions throughout the book. Gil has also very graciously mentioned me and Timnit in some interviews, such as this one with Chris Hayes.
I wish I’d taken a screenshot when his book was higher on the list, but here’s proof that it’s already a smash hit:
Amazing stuff! You can — and should! — buy a copy here.
The Utter Tyranny of the ASI Race
I just published a new article in Truthdig about how the race to build artificial superintelligence (ASI) is tyrannical and fundamentally undemocratic. I also point out that the AI company CEOs — Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, in particular — are damn hypocrites for claiming to care about democracy and the democratization of AI.
I know this isn’t a particularly novel claim. The value of the article, I think/hope, is that it articulates the point in a compelling manner. I’ve copy-pasted part of it below. The full article can be read here.
Given the apparent stakes of ASI, why do we have no say in whether it’s developed? If ASI initiates the Singularity, and the post-Singularity world is fundamentally different in every way from our current world, why do we not have a seat at the decision-making table? If this technology is going to affect all of us, everywhere around the world, shouldn’t we have a voice?
A friend of mine, Monika Bielskyte, likes to say, “You cannot design for. You must always design with.” In other words, people of every nation, tribe, culture, tradition, religion, race, sex, gender, political ideology, socioeconomic demographic and so on, must be included in the design process from the very start.
It is not acceptable for a tiny elite of techno-utopian extremists in Silicon Valley to promise that at some future point, after ASI has arrived, democracy will kick in. Let’s call this what it is: a form of tyranny. The AI companies are subjecting us to a tyranny of monumental proportions by unilaterally building what they claim will be an unprecedentedly powerful technology without the permission or consent of the people.
But again, these “fuckers” — quoting Altman — don’t actually care about what we think because they’re driven by bizarre TESCREAL fantasies of uploading their minds to computers, colonizing the cosmos, and buying entire galaxies to own until the heat death of the universe. If Altman or Amodei genuinely valued democracy, they would be asking us right now whether we want the future they’re trying to realize. Of course, we don’t want that future, which is why they don’t ask us. They want to design a future for themselves rather than one with us.
This is a farce — a dystopian scenario come to life. Given that all the AI CEOs claim that superintelligence will arrive within the next few years, we may have only a small window of time to fight back. Boycott AI, join an anti-AI protest, call your representatives and tell them that this tyranny must end. There is still time to avert a bad outcome for humanity, but we must act with a sense of moral urgency.
Incidentally, an employee at Anthropic posted this just today:
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, gives an even higher probability of total annihilation from ASI: 25%. He also says that ASI might arrive this year, meaning within the next ~3.5 months.
I know I’ve discussed this before, but I can hardly express how angry it makes me that these people — these “fuckers” — get away with threatening the lives of me, my family, my friends, and everyone else on Earth. If one takes their warnings seriously, it means that you and I, everyone we know, all the residents of Toronto, Paris, Bangkok, Casablanca, Shanghai, Caracas, Mexico City, Mumbai, etc. could all die in the next ~3.5 months.
Sorry for cursing, but how in the fuck is this acceptable? Why aren’t these people on trial for threatening humanity? Why haven’t they been arrested? Are there any lawyers reading this who have some insights about how to sue them for their rhetoric? I refuse to believe that there’s nothing to be done about this. If my neighbor says there’s a 25% chance that he might kill me and my family in the next ~3.5 months due to negligence, I’d call the cops and he’d be taken to a police station for interrogation. Surely there’s some way to hold these people accountable for their dangerous, unsettling words?
That said, I don’t think ASI will be created by the end of the year. It’s not even clear to me that ASI — whatever that is, exactly — will arrive in the next 5 or 10 years. But this is beside the point. Even if I believe my neighbor’s threat is unfounded, they should still be held accountable for uttering that threat.
The Swiss Alps
Finally, I took off the last two weeks of August to vacation with some relatives in the Swiss Alps. They generously paid for everything, which made the trip possible.
Switzerland is very expensive — because it pays people a living wage, not a minimum wage, so the bill at the grocery store doesn’t break the bank of anyone living there. Indeed, a friend in Switzerland informed me that the lowest income one might get for a full-time position is nearly $5,000 per month. A cashier at the Lidl, for example, literally earns $5,800 every four weeks. In contrast, someone earning minimum wage in the US brings in about $1,256.
The Swiss Alps are, in my opinion, the closest thing there is to heaven on Earth. The vast pastures, the towering snowcapped mountains, the sprawling meadows and verdant forests, the dreamy ferns and mossy rocks are all glorious notes in a magnificent symphony.2
The way I’ve described the Swiss Alps to friends is this: I grew up in a horizontal world — Frederick, Maryland, 30 minutes away from the puny Appalachian Mountains.
The lucky residents of the Swiss Alps live in a vertical world. As you drive or hike up the switchbacks, you pass sprawling towns almost stacked on top of each other. Enormous mountains, you find, are actually the valleys of mountains above them, which you only discover once you reach the false summit as seen from below. There are, as I like to say, entire worlds atop worlds atop worlds. It’s like walking a circuitous stairway to heaven: at each twist in the journey, you find another, previously hidden staircase ahead of you, and looking back you see mountains and valleys layered on top of mountains and valleys. It’s really something extraordinary, and a reminder of how beautiful our precious oasis in space can be.
Below are some photos and videos from the Swiss towns of Lauterbrunnen, Adelboden, and Leukerbad. The first was visited by J.R.R. Tolkien, and inspired the town of Rivendell. I also visited Zurich at the end of the trip, staying with a good friend of mine (Ged). Zurich is frequently ranked as the best, or one of the best, cities in the world to live in, and Switzerland is consistently ranked as the best country to be born in. Enjoy:
Adelboden below. I hiked a sinuous trail that winds around the huge waterfall. It takes one to a mind-bogglingly huge cirque, i.e., “an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion.” You cannot see the cirque from this photo — it is a hidden world. A good example of discovering a world (the cirque) towering above a world (Adelboden) towering above yet another world (the valley below Adelboden).
Lauterbrunnen, next to the accommodations in which I stayed. High up to the left is a sprawling village called Wengen, which looks down on Lauterbrunnen, but is dwarfed by huge mountains that you can’t even see from the Lauterbrunnen valley (itself far above valleys further below).
Wengen, the world over a world over a world, beneath a series of other worlds high above it.
Here’s another picture I took from Wengen when I visited back in 2021. Perhaps you can see why Tolkien was inspired by this place!
Further down the Lauterbrunnen valley:
A video of the Lauterbrunnen valley.
Expansive green pastures in Adelboden (no audio). The snowcapped mountain peaks behind the waterfall are obscured by clouds.
Another video of Lauterbrunnen (no audio):
Another video of Adelboden:
Picture of Leukerbad:
Video of the vast cliffs surrounding Leukerbad. To the right (occluded by the buildings, are snowcapped mountains).
As always:
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you on the other side!
I simply do not understand the kind of person who gets jealous of the success of others. It makes no sense to me. I am blown-away and thrilled by how much attention Gil’s important work is receiving!
Note that “alp” literally means “a high mountain pasture, typically near or above the tree line, where cows and other livestock are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where huts and hay barns can be found, sometimes constituting tiny hamlets.”
I really did not expect the link where to buy the book to be for amazon.com. If you can, try to buy the book elswhere. "Buy it at your favorite local bookstore!", in the words of the author (https://lnkd.in/p/dmjrqsJ6)
Glad to hear you had fun in the Swiss Alps Émile! Hopefully one day in the next few years, I’ll be able to make a pilgrimage out there myself.
Also I was gonna save this to surprise you the next time we talk, but I wanted to let you know that I purchased “The Nerd Reich” for myself. I haven’t started it yet, but it’s the book I’m gonna read next. And after reading Becker and Bender/Hanna, I don’t think I’ll be disappointed!