Émile P. Torres

@xriskology.bsky.social

Posts

Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation (Routledge, 2024). Philosopher + historian with an MS in Neuroscience. Maker of good trouble.

Posts Replies Media

I didn't kjnow about BORG drinking until now. Wow, this is so extreme. Binging and alcohol poisoning can cause permanent brain damage. www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/h...

Why BORG drinks are dangerous for you | CNNwww.cnn.com The mixed drink BORG, or “blackout rage gallon,” has gained popularity with Gen Z college students. An expert explains why partying with the trendy beverage is risky.

Dear god, long Covid is very bad today. Or maybe it's just depression? Or a synergistic combination of the two?

Great article (as usual) by Paris Marx (@parismarx.bsky.social): disconnect.blog/ai-hype-is-o...

AI hype is over. AI exhaustion is setting in.disconnect.blog Google and OpenAI’s latest showcases suggest the AI bubble’s days are numbered

Yikes.

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Émile P. Torres

How Silicon Valley billionaires intentionally muddle public conversations around human extinction. www.truthdig.com/articles/tea... by @xriskology.bsky.social

Team Human vs. Team Posthuman—Which Side Are You On? - Truthdigwww.truthdig.com How Silicon Valley billionaires intentionally muddle public conversations around human extinction.

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Émile P. Torres

Some news from @xriskology.bsky.social on the Future of Humanity Institute shutting down. Good. Oxford should never have been affiliated with this group. Maybe Bostrom will leave now xriskology.substack.com/p/the-future...

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Émile P. Torres

Informative piece on the well-deserved demise of Oxford's FHI, with reference to writings by former Hannover PhD student Émile Torres @xriskology.bsky.social

‘Eugenics on steroids’: the toxic and contested legacy of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institutewww.theguardian.com Founded in 2005 and lauded by Silicon Valley, the Nick Bostrom’s centre for studying existential risk warned about AI but also gave rise to cultish ideas such as effective altruism

Hello, friends! Transitioning to Bluesky (finally).

My newest article for Truthdig, about how widespread "human-extinctionism" is within Silicon Valley (spoiler alert: it's everywhere!): www.truthdig.com/articles/tea...

This is such a key point: current rates of warming are probably unprecedented in Earth's 4.6 billion year history. Just meditate on that for a moment. We really have no idea what the outcome will be.

Hello, friends! :-)

Got a bunch of jabs yesterday, and haven't been able to crawl out of bed so far today (side effects!). But worked through some notes on a lenghty article I'm going to write about loneliness.

Good video on the significant health effects of loneliness: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSQj...

Last night, probably ~4am, I was woken up because of *thunderstorms in the middle of the night, in February, in Cleveland*. Reminder that this is the least crazy the weather is going to be for the rest of our lives, due to climate change.

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Émile P. Torres

Reply to

Neşe Devenot, PhD

The backbone of this worldview is the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies—an acronym coined by critical AI scholars @xriskology.bsky.social & Timnit Gebru to describe an interrelated cluster of belief systems, linking transhumanism to Effective Altruism & longtermism. /8 www.truthdig.com/articles/the...

TESCREALism: The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmareswww.truthdig.com To understand the divide between AI boosters and doomers, one must unpack their common origins in a bundle of ideologies known as TESCREAL.

My newest article for Salon! It summarizes part of my just-out book "Human Extinction: A History of the Science and Ethics of Annihilation." Enjoy -- if that's the right word! :-) www.salon.com/2023/10/08/w...

Have you ever been ghosted? Has someone in your life ever just suddenly vanished? I spent the past year reading every academic paper published about this increasingly common form of emotional cruelty, and here’s my take-away: www.truthdig.com/articles/wha...

My newest for @salonnewsroom.bsky.social! The deeply disturbing fact is that the summer of 2023 will be among the mildest, least disruptive, coolest, and most stable of ALL THE SUMMERS that we experience for the REST OF OUR LIVES. It only gets worse from here on out.⚠️⚠️ www.salon.com/2023/09/23/t...

I get right to the point in my newest article: the extreme weather events of 2023 are nothing compared to what's coming. At least 1B people will die this century from climate change, and another 2B will be displaced. This is the CALM BEFORE THE STORM. 😥 www.salon.com/2023/09/23/t...

Yesterday, my book on the history of thinking about human extinction was finally released!! To celebrate, I wrote a 20k-word précis, or summary, of the entire manuscript, which I've posted on Medium here!! https://xriskology.medium.com/human-extinction-a-brief-guided-tour-of-the-book-5cfb6a5a726

Human Extinction: A Brief Guided Tour of the Bookxriskology.medium.com 200,000 words condensed into 20,000

Got my PhD today. Done. Whew. Dissertation was the forthcoming book!

Literally nothing works on Twitter right now. If I try to follow people, I get a message saying: "You are unable to follow more people at this time." If I try to "like" or tweet something, I get a message saying: "This request looks like it might be automated." The same for DMs. Lol. What a shitshow

New article of mine was just published. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/does-agi-really-threaten-the-survival-of-the-species/

Hello. Twitter is awful.

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