David Ramírez Álvarez, secretary at the embassy of Cuba in the US, joins us to understand the escalating blockade on Cuba.

Find Part 2 coming soon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow

This week we dive into Emile's area of expertise, the ethics of human extinction and how these ethics are shaping Silicon Valley.

Further Reading

• https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/making-sense-of-the-human-extinction

Books Mentioned

• The Last Man, Mary Shelley

• Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation, Émile Torres

Support the show at https://patreon.com/c/DystopiaNow

Researcher and journalist Dylan Gyauch-Lewis joins us this week to discuss the views behind ongoing data center buildout for AI despite community resistance.

Find Dylan's work at the American Prospect and https://therevolvingdoorproject.org

Further Reading

• Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The American Prospect: More AI Means More Cancer
• Dylan Gyauch-Lewis for The Revolving Door Project: Support for Data Centers in Shor Supply

This week, we discussed the biography of the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and his brand of tech doomerism.

Further Reading

• Émile's article: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/eliezer-yudkowsky-and-the-unabomber

While profit motivates all companies under capitalism, why are the wealthiest tech companies so focused on AGI? This week, we dive into the relationships, ideologies, and claims behind the four biggest players claiming to build artificial general intelligence: Google DeepMind, OpenAI (partly owned by Microsoft), Anthropic, and Elon Musk's xAI.

Further Reading

• https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/tescrealism-and-the-race-to-build

Book mentioned

• The AI Con - Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

We're joined again by Dr. Alexander Thomas, author of The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism, to discuss current events and how the Extropians' libertarian transhumanist fantasies connect to today's efforts to meme right-wing authoritarianism into reality.

Books Mentioned

• Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian

• The Politics and Ethics of Transhumanism by Alexander Thomas (open access)

Welcome to 2026!

This week, we took a look at imperialism and how the rotating cast of billionaires discussed on the show are more involved than meets the eye.

FURTHER READING:

• Émile's article "Are You Suffering from Crisis Fatigue?": https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/are-you-suffering-from-crisis-fatigue

• Gil Duran's article on the Network State and Venezuela (The Nerd Reich): https://www.thenerdreich.com/network-state-comes-for-venezuela/

• Prospera: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/magazine/prospera-honduras-crypto.html

• Honduras: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/04/trump-venezuela-maduro-pardon-honduras.html

• Greenland: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greenland-freedom-city-rich-donors-push-trump-tech-hub-up-north-2025-04-10/ AND https://www.insidehook.com/internet/peter-thiel-praxis-next-great-city-greenland AND https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html

• Pardons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ripple/2025/12/10/trumps-clemency-machine-deserves-more-right-wing-scrutiny/ AND https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trump-pro-crypto-or-pro-crime