There’s a lot to like about the Rationalist community, but they do have a certain tendency to spawn — shall we say — high demand groups. We sent a card-carrying Rat to investigate what’s really going on.
The Zizians and the Rationalist death cults
What is the deal with Rationalism and cults?
The Zizians and the Rationalist death cults
What is the deal with Rationalism and cults?
The Zizians and the Rationalist death cults
What is the deal with Rationalism and cults?
The rationalists are not ok
Who, or what, are the rationalists? They are an internet-spawned sub-culture who ‘practice the art of rationality’. This means they spend lots of time thinking about topics like cognitive biases, Bayesian reasoning, probability and statistics, computer science, AI, decision theory, game theory, transhumanism, etc. Demographically they skew heavily toward STEM students from elite universities and tech guys in the bay area.
The Rise of Silicon Valley’s Techno-Religion (Published 2025)
The Rationalists, a community focused on the risks of artificial intelligence, regularly gather with tech figures and other like-minded people in a complex that covers much of a city block.
Effective Altruism Is a Dangerous Cult — Here's Why
Understanding the "Scientology of Silicon Valley." (7,700 words)
Why it’s as hard to escape an echo chamber as it is to flee a cult | Aeon Essays
First you don’t hear other views. Then you can’t trust them. Your personal information network entraps you just like a cult
Who are the Zizians?
A cult-like group referred to as the Zizians is linked to a string of violent deaths across the U.S. It has its roots in Silicon Valley – and a movement called Rationalism. Who are these groups and what do they believe?
The sad decline of effective altruism
A once wholesome and inspiring movement has become entangled with cults and has lost years chasing dead-end ideas
AI cults are here - Robert Edward Grant, a self-proclaimed polymath talks to his ChatGPT instance he calls The Architect, during his Sacred Britain Expedition in May 2026.
319 votes, 102 comments. 167K subscribers in the cults community. A place for discussion about cults and other new age religious movements.
The Techno-Religion at the Center of the A.I. Debate
Are those calling to slow down the development of artificial intelligence in a “doomsday cult,” as some critics say? Our reporter explains.
npj on Twitter / X
Schumpeter in a nut shell:— Capitalism forces “rationalization” and the rationalist worldview, which just ends in an almost nihilistic skepticism that corrodes everything traditional that it touches: in particular “family life” and the aristocracy.— The traditional… pic.twitter.com/hThnUJ6jNE— npj (@TiltingatM3) May 28, 2026
First They Built a Secular Apocalypse Belief System. Now They Want Religious Authority.
Over the weekend, a clip about “Anthropic thinks it’s building God” started making the rounds.
Excuse me but this is cult behavior. And as a scientist, I have no business joining a cult. These personalized insults and intolerance for criticism are not scholarly virtues however you cut it. I do not understand or relate to it. What is my worth as a scholar if I do not value evidence over faith?
Rationalist Cults
Articles on rationalist-adjacent cults: the Zizians, Leverage Research, and the darker outgrowths of the rationalist / LessWrong-derived / Aella polycule scene that is behind "AI Safety" in Silicon Valley. Working thesis: MIRI and CFAR read as high-control groups (cults) who believe in P(DOOM) and use sex (and power) maliciously — yet they are unfortunately the ones who have captured the framing of "AI Safety," which has little to do with actual safety.
The Effective Altruism Kids Aren’t Alright
My Experience with Leverage Research
What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI
banteg (@banteg)
The Techno-Religion at the Center of the A.I. Debate
SE Gyges (@segyges.bsky.social)
