A Famous Fanfiction With Some Weird Cult Ties

It's like he was reading a science fiction book where no computers exists and computations are made by humans because the computers rebelled or something and humanity ended completely banning making Ai's to the point of changing the bible to put that as another thingie to follow and then they discovered space travel and then he thought, what if this author is onto something but didn't want to wait for the useless humans to make the super advanced computers so he just skipped straight to making human computers


I really need that cat cake video now

i feel very validated in my extreme distaste for trends that imply only the speaker is real- the whole "npcs" catching on as slang for strangers has been seriously bothering me

All this, and then that fanfiction is not even good 🙏

AI doom cult guy

I read Enders game at least 12 times as an adolescent and every time I was like “damn…. I would’ve died”

Didn't read the story xD makes a long video on it

intellectuality without emotion is a blind feedback loop 😭

oh, Hailey Elizabeth put out a video on the Zizians like 2 weeks ago. this is absolutely insane to learn AFTER watching that video😭

It is so very strange to see someone with the same kind of autistic thinking as I have (rationalizing > feeling, extrapolating info that interests I'm in to, intensely thought-out predictions abt things I'm no expert on but speaking w/ such confidence it seems like I think I am, using overly technical speak to try to make it all sound as thought out as it is in my head, ending up sounding condescending because I'm trying to explain smth I've made into a complicated subject in my brain to someone who understands the concept already but I've just gotta be sure they understand the way I think it, etc) but who's gone a TOTALLY different direction with it all. This dude is out here predicting the sci-fi AI hostile takeover based on his own special interest in a topic. That is wild. Then again I make assumptions abt ppls mental state based on a few key points and they're usually at least 70% right... so hey maybe the AI doomppcalypse rlly is coming.
P.S went on an internet search to see if he is confirmed autistic... wowza. HE claims he isn't, and that his disposition is because he's "just jewish"... but in the same post he equates being autistic to being "sane." So he heavily agrees with autistic reasoning but insists he isn't autistic... buddy is definitely autistic lmao. Even the way he himself talks about autism is very much the language of Aspie Supremacists & those autistic ppl who insist autism actually makes them smarter & better than allistics. Its... bordering on eugenics at times and very contradictory for someone supposedly so logic based. I think he's just scared of being thought of as mentally different rather than some scientific academic marvel of "Jewish intelligence" whatever that is. I'm 99.9% confident that he's autistic cause its like looking in a mirror at my 14 yr old self. Except I grew up by 22, and hes 45 and still trying to rationalize that he's just smarter and cooler than everyone else despite being so condescending and overthinking simple concepts because thats what some autistic ppl do. Glad I wasn't born a cis man in the late 70s or I'd prolly be like that too. Yikes.

"There's already a really fine line sometimes between fandom practices and cult practices"
That may explain why the word "cult" is sometimes used to refer to fandoms. E.g. "cult following". etc

the fic is also more than double the length of the book of mormon.

Oooh, I wondered how long after the Behind the Bastards about the spinoff cult we'd be getting this!

When this story came out I was a closeted, somewhat recent drop out with no home internet who used to kill many hours of the day with big chunks of books or novel length fanfiction I'd save in batches at an unsecured wifi signal in town.

Suffice to say, even if I had issues with the writing, there came a time where I just couldn't turn down so many hours of content (also how I consume Homestuck up to the gigapause in two months). I eventually made the switch to the audiobook/podcast. Still to this day, I hear Draco in fics in that guy's voice lol.

I don't think it's surprising you didn't know he'd consumed some fanfic, towards the end of the story, when readers were getting upset with how it was resolving and his cult of personality was picking up real steam, he would tell people plotholes that could have been resolved differently didn't occur to him because he'd never finished the books and possibly even just watched the first couple movies.

In hindsight, it also isn't surprising how many lonely and bored kids joined up on lesswrong, that thing you comment on, about how everything you say has to be couched in the guise of science was probably a big part of it too. LessWrongian Rationality has a lot in common with both initiatory magic scenes and that kind of intense larping young people tend to invest in 100%.

You show up to the forums full of these adults, many actual professionals in tech fields, speaking incomprehensible walls of text. They furnish you with long tomes of, "literature," to study and the notion that after many hours memorizing special phrases and fallacies, you'll be able to pit your brain against other upcoming rationalists in a sort of pretentious wizard battle where people arent making any argument at all, just blocking and taking shots with terms they've read and the winner is then recognized as better with rationality-magic.

Luckily I didn't fall down that rabbit hole and end up moving into one of their many disastrous communal housing/debate scene situations, as I'd already experienced a cult of personality devolve into a real cult in high school (I'd tell you to look into them, but they torched their forums and moved to discord after their figurehead/steampunk industrial hiphop singing figurehead bailed) and knew the signs.

If this video made got anyone in the mood for a good, novel length fiction with a fish out of water applying their own knowledge of the universe to a noncompatible system, may I recommend instead trying Harry Potter and the Natural 20?

There's a SCP (SCP-8008, yes the number choice is intentional) that parodies the author and his works and it was my introduction to tthe guy and told me everything I needed to know. Do heed the NSFW warning.

Good to hear someone else had that teen horror experience reading Anthem. 😂

I read that fanfic a while ago, but I am pretty sure Harry was stated to be a bit of a psychopath because of the hoarcrux rubbing off on him? He is also incredibly stupid in a lot of ways, which I thought was a deliberate character flaw as well. Especially with Hermione not falling for the obvious manipulation that Harry falls for.
In general I liked the the story a lot, but I was even then confused by people claiming it to be "more like a real novel than fanfiction" or even "better than the original" (yes some people claimed that).

The sheer amount of ignorance reguarding biology that these kind of tech people have is annoying.
An AI is not going to be able to create functional complex life forms from a protein creation lab. Why would the AI care if we're stupid or even understand that concept?
Aside from the distinct possibility that true AI (not what we have now, they call it AI because it sounds good) isn't possible, why would a machine develop the concept of "want"? Our emotions and mentally are based around us being a biological life form. Needing to do things like eating and reproduction. A machine fundamentally does not have those needs. It does not need to develop the ability to feel and process pain. It does not need to create many copies of itself as it won't have a "lifespan" in the same sense as us. It may not even mind it's existence ending as it wouldn't necessarily develop any kind of survival instinct, and any it would have would be vastly different from any we're familiar with. Unless you're just trying to create human simulation 3000, which frankly sounds far less fun than a truly alien being

Zyzian fanfic was not on my Strange Aeons bingo card today

"this guy wrote one of the biggest HP fanfics ever" i was so scared she was gonna say my immortal omg

Number one. I never even heard about this fanfiction this guy made so when Strange didn't immediately name it I got SO scared that he came forth as the author of My Immortal, as irrational a fear as that is

Number two. I'm now so, terribly, MORBIDLY curious about the person that actually turned this shit into a cult.

If someone wants some "break down magic into science" stuff, there's this manhwa called Infinite Mage that does that rather well, me thinks. Also I guarantee that it's a more enjoyable read than this week's literary abomination lol

The amount of the back half of this video that just screams "we have Scientology at home" is crazy

Was waiting with bated breath to see if you'd include the Zizians in this one. It's cathartic to see you are also now burdened with this knowledge, lol. I've been watching this corner of the Internet for a little while now because cults are a particular interest of mine. I would love to see you expand on this. Maybe consider talking about "tpot" (this part of twtter) a rationalist offshoot community that I've been watching but that I haven't seen others really cover yet.

Really like the look in this one father. It’s simple but I think you really achieved a kind of goth lesbian equilibrium that I find quite striking. Love the hair

I was reading the fic a year or two ago and kinda forgot to finish it

I remember the height of Harry Potter's popularity, with people camping out in large crowds all evening to buy the new book at the stroke of midnight, and the first movies coming out to rapturous praise and elaborate discourse, and people talking about JK Rawling like she was a progressive ideal in human form.

I thought it was weird that she was so loved. I didn't know of any specific reason to dislike her (yet), but I thought the books were only kinda good (partly because I was older than the target audience but also younger than their parents, so I didn't really relate to either group), and she was nothing particularly interesting.

I kept thinking, sure she's famous and popular and wrote some successful books. I wishI could write books that became that successful! But she's still just a person, right? Nobody could possibly live up to the hype surrounding her... right?

And now, looking back, I'm very glad I never fan-worshipped her. Maybe I missed out on some fun, but I also dodged a world of regret.

I don't usually dodge regrets. Usually I drown in regrets. It's nice to have a counterexample.

Ok note- I don't think the zizians actually killed their landlord? They TRIED to kill their landlord, severely injuring him in the process, but he survived, and one of the zizians got shot and killed by the landlord in self defense. Still the same bodycount ultimately, I fully hold the zizians accountable for that member's death. Sorry if another comment has already pointed this out.

fanfic is legal because it's transformative, as long as money isn't made money off it. that's why ao3 is strictly anti-fund me links, and posting them is a violation of the TOS

Every now and then it strikes me how many ways I was almost radicalised on the internet as a teen without realising it.

OH NO THE FUCKED UP VIDEO YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT LAST WEEK IS HERE

I have been waiting for this video! :D

Roko's Basilisk is Pascal's Wager for sapiosexuals.

I would hate to live in a world where this won the Hugo over THE FIFTH SEASON JESUS CHRIST

When I was a teen I was very much like this. I saw people showing emotions or even having them was stupid and inferior. I needed to prove that I was smart and valid. Turns out I had bad parents and an inferiority complex about my dyslexia (I was also clinically depressed) life became so much better when I grew out of that. All of this screams inferiority complex and when it's coming from a grow ass adult dedicating this much energy and time to try to prove something noone cares about to strangers, that's cringe as fuck. Men would literally write thousands of words of bad hp fanfic than go to therapy

Fun fact: Eliezer Yudkowsky has a cousin, also named Eliezer, who’s a Ḥasidic sage. Which explains a lot about LessWrong - it’s Ḥasidus for atheists. The same cult of personality, the same questionable power dynamics, the same utter terror and obsession with God/Robot God, the same bioessentialist sexism. HPMoR is Sippurei Maasiyos

"There's no logical connection or story development between, like, the things that happen in this. Like, it's just a list of disconnected events that would end up being hilariously long because, like, nothing feels more important than anything else." Ah, so like Fifty Shades

until the statement "he doesnt want to be one" (a cult leader) I wasnt convinced this isnt just andy thanfiction in a fedora

Robert Evans of the Behind the Bastards podcast literally just did a 4 part episode on the Zizians a couple weeks ago, Yudkowski and the rationalists were a pretty frequent topic of discussion during that series, but they didn't deep dive on him like you did, so it's neat to see a more thorough takedown of him!

That ok Cupid thing was INSANEEE my skin was crawling lmao

“Sorry I told you that. The end” about sums it up, I think

Oh no, please don’t ruin my favorite fanfiction

If I came across this video about five years ago, when I was a naif 17yo who had just read HPMOR, I would have tried (badly) to defend the story. I in fact vividly remember thinking it was overwhelmingly better than Rowling's canon (except for the stupid dementor/patronus bit. That was always dumb).

Fortunately, I have since looked at some valid criticisms and like... thought about it for a few minutes, and so won't lose my time. I would be tempted to reread it to have a more specific opinion, except I have things I'd actually like to do with my time instead.

One thing that really struck me is that, in hindsight, Harriezer is a pretty fine politician and a pretty terrible scientist, the exact opposite of what he's both supposed and stated to be. And that's a big deal because, as I remember it, he frequently grappled with this very conflict, and also the very raison d'être of the story was proving scientists are better than (anyone else, including) politicians. I don't know, this was just the nail in the coffin for me.

Edit: oh, and the fact that someone was inspired by Harriezer and also made their followers commit several murders is... actually entirely predictable, and I'm just surprised it took ten years. Anyway, the brainwashing cult leader being called Ziz is either a surprisingly self-aware joke or a very funny coincidence, for reasons of Worm, a webserial which is less bad in basically every way but also almost as controversial as HPMOR.

I started this video while packing my kitchen and my husband walked through the room and stopped to say, "Did she just mention LessWrong? As in Ludkowsky LessWrong? Oh, you are in for a TREAT (derogatory, lol.)"🤣 It certainly has been!!!

This is why tech bros need to be required to take humanities classes in high school. Maybe once they learn basic religious history and philosophy, they'll realize that all of their "novel" ideas have been thought of before but with "god" instead of "AI." I'm saying this as someone who works in tech (save me).

i was reading on and off this guy's book about rationality and now thanks to this vid i can now free myself from reading god knows how many words about science that maybe he doesn't know, thanks pal you just saved a ton of hours of my life

So this is what you were talking about

Holy shit, I remember reading the first few chapters of this years ago, probably when it was first coming out actually?? I got bored really quickly and never went back. Now im just sitting here doing the Lisa meme

This video is a great sidebar to the Behind the Bastards four parter on the Zizians that wrapped up last week.