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.
Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults?
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 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.
The Irrational Decision
How the computer revolution shaped our conception of rationality—and why human problems require solutions rooted in human intuition, morality, and judgment
Being rational all the time isn’t going to do you any favors
When Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky published their paper on Prospect Theory in 1979, few people could have imagined the long-term implications.
The AI safety vibe shift
Once a fringe obsession of Bay Area rationalists, existential risk is suddenly all anyone is talking about
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
Math Academy
The Math Academy curriculum and pedagogy leverage cutting-edge cognitive learning theory. Why? Because it’s been studied extensively, backed up and proven to work. We aren’t providing edu-tainment. This isn’t enrichment. We teach math as if we were training a professional athlete or musician, or anyone looking to acquire a skill to the highest degree possible. This is real work for a student who is serious about learning math. We expect every student using our system to actually master the material, and do it efficiently and effectively.
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 marketplace of rationalizations
Recent work in economics has rediscovered the importance of belief-based utility for understanding human behaviour. Belief ‘choice’ is subject to an important constraint, however: people can only bring themselves to believe things for which they can find rationalizations. When preferences for similar beliefs are widespread, this constraint generates rationalization markets, social structures in which agents compete to produce rationalizations in exchange for money and social rewards. I explore the nature of such markets, I draw on political media to illustrate their characteristics and behaviour, and I highlight their implications for understanding motivated cognition and misinformation.
Field Notes: The Architecture of Rationalization - Aaron Ross Powell
Marginalia on the internet turning bad, platform extraction, and existential restlessness.
Pop science doesn't reach a "general audience"
Pop sci readers are wealthy, educated, and left-leaning
Public hands
A dispatch from the rationalists’ compound in Berkeley, where they're a little touchy about the possibility of AI killing them.
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)