Long-read traces the rationalist subculture behind AI doomerism, from clear thinking to cult dynamics
Dimillian · x · 2026-10-24
Ian K. Duncan's essay "Sex, AI, and the Apocalypse" opens with Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation — he walked away two months before his equity vested, warning AI could kill us all by decade's end ("This is not a marketing stunt"), a post that hit 100M views in a day; Anthropic's alignment science lead Evan Hubinger publicly agreed, putting his own odds above 1-in-10.
The essay's core argument: to weigh these doomer warnings, you must understand the 25-year-old internet subculture they come from. Duncan traces how a community devoted to "thinking clearly" incubated salvation stories, abusive experiments, race science, and an affinity for autocracy — and why that history matters now that its alumni dominate AI safety discourse and ask for public trust.
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