More Everything Forever

AI Doomerism, Risk, and “Cult” Accusations

• Some commenters attack prominent AI doom figures as “Bayesian nutjobs,” cult-like, or tied to dubious ideology; they cite shifting, non-falsifiable timelines and fearmongering.
• Others push back, noting mainstream researchers who warn about extinction risk and also acknowledge nearer-term harms.
• There’s agreement that AI safety is important, but disagreement over whether it should be led by existing “rationalist” communities vs. traditional academia and engineering.
• Several worry less about extinction and more about inequality, surveillance, and political misuse.

Techno-Utopian Ideologies (TESCREAL, Cosmism, Transhumanism)

• Discussion of TESCREAL as a bundled label for various future-oriented ideologies.
• Some argue its supposed “deep roots” in Russian Cosmism are largely a retrospective fiction based on sci-fi, with poor scholarship and factual errors.
• Others say these ideas are great for science fiction but weak as life-guiding or political frameworks.

Mars, Longevity, and “Escape” vs. Fixing Earth

• Strong split over Mars colonization: critics call it technically dubious, economically wasteful, and vastly harder than proponents admit; advocates see it as a “moonshot” that drives innovation and provides existential insurance.
• Long debate over timescales (decades vs. a century+), viability of self-sustaining colonies, and whether we could already do one-way missions with current tech.
• Many argue we haven’t even “settled” Antarctica or deserts; robots outperform humans for science; Earth after catastrophe is still friendlier than Mars.
• Others emphasize exploration, human “spirit,” and portfolio thinking: fund both near-term social problems and long-horizon projects.

Billionaires, Capital Allocation, and Media Critique

• Some see billionaire-funded space/AI/longevity projects as grifts, escapism, or vanity that distract from solvable issues like poverty, climate, and disease.
• Others argue private ambition has delivered real benefits (EVs, cheap launches, satellite internet) and that capitalism plus tech will do more than activism or regulation.
• Debate over whether critics (NYT, other outlets) reflexively attack any ambitious tech, and whether tech leaders routinely overpromise and mislead.

Technology vs. Politics as the Lever of Change

• Recurrent theme: Mars and AGI are primarily technical problems; poverty, inequality, and authoritarianism are primarily political.
• Several commenters criticize “ideology of technological salvation” that assumes future inventions will clean up current externalities, allowing business as usual.
• Others insist large-scale improvements in health and lifespan show that transformative progress mainly comes from technology, with politics lagging behind.

Experts, VCs, and Public Discourse

• Frustration that wealthy founders and VCs are treated as universal experts while domain specialists stay quiet or inaccessible.
• Counter-argument: experts shouldn’t be expected to become full-time communicators or pundits; their incentive structures differ from hype-driven investors.