this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2026
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SneerClub
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Hurling ordure at the TREACLES, especially those closely related to LessWrong.
AI-Industrial-Complex grift is fine as long as it sufficiently relates to the AI doom from the TREACLES. (Though TechTakes may be more suitable.)
This is sneer club, not debate club. Unless it's amusing debate.
[Especially don't debate the race scientists, if any sneak in - we ban and delete them as unsuitable for the server.]
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It probably hit the mainstream with AI2040 in early July, but it's just too rationalist coded for there to not have been precursors.
summary of AI2040 in greentext form
source, RIP xcancelnew effective altruism coomer bedtime story just dropped
> be me
> effective altruist in 2026
> have spent ten years explaining that democracy is too slow for the coming machine god
> also explain that central planning usually fails
> unless I am doing it
> read one scaling graph
> draw line upward
> line reaches heaven
> conclude capitalism ends in 2031
> AI can now write Python functions with only three subtle security flaws
> obviously two years away from replacing every scientist, general, diplomat, CEO, judge, therapist, novelist, and attractive person at parties
> publish “scenario,” not “prediction”
> give every paragraph exact dates
> assign percentages to imaginary branches
> epistemic humility achieved
> bad timeline:
> companies race
> AI becomes god
> everyone dies
> good timeline:
> US government notices problem
> China agrees
> Congress understands compute governance
> international inspectors find every hidden datacenter
> nobody lies
> nobody defects
> nobody builds chips in a basement
> planet saved
> all we need is total global visibility into advanced computing
> mandatory disclosure of frontier research
> permanent monitoring of industrial infrastructure
> central control over technological development
> relax, this is the anti-authoritarian option
> alignment not solved
> solution: build one billion genius AIs
> they are not superintelligent
> they are merely one billion tireless copies of the best human researchers working at electronic speed
> completely different
> put them in a box
> ask them to solve the problem of escaping boxes
> excellent progress
> year 2034
> AI replaces 80% of labor
> mass unemployment
> social order somehow remains intact
> government sends everyone $1.6 million
> nobody asks where prices went
> year 2037
> cancer cured
> climate solved
> fusion solved
> aging solved
> politics solved
> Reddit moderation still unresolved
> year 2038
> alignment becomes a mature science
> year 2039
> we trust the machines
> year 2040
> hand them civilization
> peer review completed ahead of schedule
> humanity gets a vote
> options are:
> A. accept benevolent AI guardianship
> B. extinction
> meaningful democratic consent achieved
> announce decentralized flourishing
> administered by a globally coordinated compute authority
> with comprehensive surveillance powers
> run by unusually wise people
> who agree with my blog posts
> critics ask whether institutions can actually do any of this
> reply that superintelligence is inevitable
> critics ask whether superintelligence is actually inevitable
> reply that institutions must prepare
> circular reasoning
> but with footnotes
> call it “AI 2040”
> not utopian fiction
> not doomer fiction
> serious strategic foresight
> entire future depends on competent adults appearing at exactly the right moment
> adults are selected from the same civilization that made the printer require an app
> sleep peacefully
> the machine god is coming
> but fortunately
> the nonprofit sector has a plan
100% perfect summary