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

Is AGI right around the corner, again? How's the AI bubble doing? What happened to climate activism? We're closing out the year with a round up of the many predictions made about technology by 2025 and share some of our own guesses.

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

Further Reading

• Émile's rundown of 2025 predictions: https://www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/what-people-thought-would-happen
• NYT on the AI bubble: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/business/the-ai-boom-economy.html
• Book mentioned: The Discovery of the Future - H.G. Wells