banteg's satire: 'microdoom' — trading extinction risk on Uniswap

banteg · x · 2026-09-14

Engineer banteg posts a satirical thread imagining a tokenized extinction-risk economy called "microdoom": Anthropic's safety team estimates a new model adds 4.6 microdooms, offset by buying credits from an alignment nonprofit whose grant is spent on Anthropic API credits — a "closed-loop doom economy." The bit escalates into staked microdoom at 7.4% APY, a multisig oracle of seven epistemically independent housemates that depegs when two read different blog posts, a fork for s-risk maximalists, and a settlement problem: if doom happens, winners are dead, which a quant notes eliminates sell pressure — so the token pumps. It ends with CNBC's doom ticker, JPMorgan tactically underweight extinction, and a San Francisco man whispering "survival is priced in." A widely shared parody of AI-safety doomer fundraising and circular grant flows.

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