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editTESCREAL is an acronym neologism, proposed by Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres, standing for "transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism (as espoused by Eliezer Yudkowsky in the LessWrong blog community), [1] Effective Altruism, and longtermism." Gebru and Torres allege that these concepts overlap, especially in social and academic circles in Silicon Valley centered around artificial intelligence. As such, the acronym is sometimes used by them to criticize a perceived belief system associated with Big Tech.[2][3][4][5] Neşe Devenot has used the TESCREAL acronym to also refer to "global tech elites" who promote new uses of psychedelic drugs as mental health treatments, not because they want to help people, but rather so that they can make money on the sale of these new pharmaceuticals, as part of a deliberate plan to increase inequality.[6]
Torres claims that these ideas have previous overlaps;[3] that transhumanism, extropianism and singularitarianism are presented as a coherent set of ideas by Ray Kurzweil, a notable technology evangelist and AI researcher at Google.[2] Torres and Gebru attribute the roots of longtermism, part of the TESCREAL ideology, to eugenics and scientific racism.[7] Dave Troy, a reporter for the The Washington Spectator, attributes Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian rocket scientist and proponent of Cosmism, as an influence on Elon Musk.[2] Sam Bankman-Fried was a member of the Effective Altruism community, collaborating with some frequency with the Oxford philosopher Will MacAskill.[2] Torres says that Nick Bostrom and Eliezer Yudkowsky are "TESCREALists".[3]
Many of the discourses around an existential risk from artificial general intelligence occur among supporters of the TESCREAL ideologies.[2]
TESCREALism
editTorres has stated that TESCREALism is a view of the future in which technology empowers humanity to attain feats such as “producing radical abundance, reengineering ourselves, becoming immortal, colonizing the universe and creating a sprawling “post-human” civilization among the stars full of trillions and trillions of people.”[3] They claim that the most direct path to actualizing this vision is through “building superintelligent AGI.”[3] Torres has also stated that the concept of an existential risks is central to the TESCREAL worldview, events that would prevent humanity from realizing a techno-utopian future.[8] They assert that TESCREALists view "sub-existential risks," catastrophe scenarios that do not interfere with this idea of a techno-utopian future, as unimportant.[8]
Gebru claims that TESCREALism is "the fruit of a very concerted movement that has been happening for more than a decade,"[9] and that TESCREALists are "pumping" students, professors, journalists, and lobbyists into the field of AI.[9] She also maintains that part of the TESCREAL ideology is related to sexism and racism.[10]
Responses
editSociologist, transhumanist, and bioethicist James J. Hughes (with Eli Sennesh) characterizes this analysis of futurist ideas and people as a conspiracy theory, and states: "These new left conspiracists cast all futurist philosophies together under the acronym of TESCREAL, linked in their minds to eugenics and racism. Again, there is a web of facts underlying their fantasies, just as [Jeffrey] Epstein was confirmatory for QAnon. But the conspiracy style of argumentation is bad intellectual history and bad politics."[11] Torres has rejected the description.[12]
References
edit- ^ Torres, Émile (2023-06-20). "Twitter conversation about the description of anti-TESCREAL as a conspiracy theory". Retrieved 2023-10-14.
This is funny because Sandberg is a transhumanist who participated in the Extropian movement, anticipates the Singularity, has a long history with cosmists (Goertzel) and Rationalists (Yudkowsky), is very influential among Rationalists and EAs, comments on the LessWrong blog, and [...]
- ^ a b c d e Troy, Dave (1 May 2023). "1 May 2023". The Washington Spectator. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "The Acronym Behind Our Wildest AI Dreams and Nightmares". 15 June 2023. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ "We need to examine the beliefs of today's tech luminaries". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ "He's played chess with Peter Thiel, sparred with Elon Musk and once, supposedly, stopped a plane crash: Inside Sam Altman's world, where truth is stranger than fiction". Business Insider. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ Devenot, Neşe (2023). "TESCREAL hallucinations: Psychedelic and AI hype as inequality engines". Journal of Psychedelic Studies.
Counterfactual efforts to improve mental health by increasing inequality are widespread in the psychedelics industry. These efforts have been propelled by an elitist worldview that is widely-held in Silicon Valley. The backbone of this worldview is the TESCREAL bundle of ideologies, ... While others have noted similarities between the earlier SSRI hype and the ongoing hype for psychedelic medications, the rhetoric of psychedelic hype is tinged with utopian and magico-religious aspirations that have no parallel in the discourse surrounding SSRIs or other antidepressants. I argue that this utopian discourse provides insight into the ways that global financial and tech elites are instrumentalizing psychedelics as one tool in a broader world-building project that justifies increasing material inequality.
- ^ Torres, Émile (23 January 2023). "Nick Bostrom, Longtermism, and the Eternal Return of Eugenics". Truthdig. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ a b Dave Troy (14 June 2022). "Understanding TESCREAL with Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres". Apple Podcasts (Podcast). David Troy. Event occurs at 23:10. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ a b Dave Troy (14 June 2022). "Understanding TESCREAL with Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres". Apple Podcasts (Podcast). David Troy. Event occurs at 20:38. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ Dave Troy (14 June 2022). "Understanding TESCREAL with Dr. Timnit Gebru and Émile Torres". Apple Podcasts (Podcast). David Troy. Event occurs at 22:01. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
- ^ Hughes, James (2023-06-12). "Conspiracy Theories, Left Futurism, and the Attack on TESCREAL - Some critics have decided futurist philosophies and their advocates are bound together in a toxic, reactionary bundle, promoted by a cabal of Silicon Valley elites. This style of conspiracy analysis has a long history and is always a misleading way to understand the world. We need a Left futurism that can address the flaws of these philosophies and frame a liberatory vision".
We completely support a ruthless deconstruction of the shallow, self-serving, and dangerous ways that some billionaires have adopted these futurist ideas. But reducing two hundred years of intellectual history and political reality to the sloppy musings of a handful of tech bros and a tenuous web of guilt by association is seriously misleading, like all conspiracy theories. ... Worse, the anti-TESCREAL conspiracy is reactive rather than proactive.
- ^ Torres, Émile (14 October 2023). "The TESCREAL Conspiracy Theory". Medium. Retrieved 23 October 2023.