Over the weekend, police managed to apprehend Jack "Ziz" DeSota, a mysterious figure who allegedly leads a group called the "Zizians" who are tied to a mind-boggling cross-country string of murders.

At the heart of the bizarre debacle is AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky and his LessWrong forum, which played host to the semi-obscure internet theory known as "Roko's Basilisk." First posited on the site in 2010, the theory-cum-thought-experiment proposed by a user called "Roko" centers on an otherwise benevolent future artificial superintelligence — symbolized by the mythological basilisk that can kill with a mere glance — that would torture any human who was aware of its future possible existence but refused to work toward that goal (the theory caused a minor online panic, as users fretted that simply learning about the theory was dooming them to a future of horrific punishment.)

A militant vegan, Ziz and her ilk tie their stringent belief in animal rights to a hodgepodge of political and philosophical stances. The only true lineage one can trace their beliefs to is Yudkowsky's concept of Rationality, a popular Silicon Valley mode of thought that champions rational thinking over all else — though to be clear, Zizian rationalism seems, from what we can parse anyway, to be a far cry from the researcher's belief in using rational thought to approach problem-solving and decision-making.

In fact, the group's ideological stew seems to have repeatedly led to brutal killings. Law enforcement officials and armchair investigators alike are ablaze after Ziz's astonishing arrest in connection to the slaying of a Border Patrol agent in January and five other killings connected to her purported followers — including the double murder of one of the followers' parents on New Year's Eve in 2022.

While the public is just now learning about this bizarre alleged cult and its mysterious leader — who apparently faked her own death back in 2022 and who once, per documentation from an online detractor, claimed to be "suffering from Basilisks" as a code for ethical anxiety — folks on LessWrong have been warning about the Zizians for years.

In a nearly two-year-old post, for instance, a user cautioned that "some people in the rationalist community are concerned about risks of physical violence from Ziz and some of her associates."

"Over the past few years," the post reads, "Ziz has repeatedly called for the deaths of many different classes of people."

For most of us, this bonkers story is only now coming to light. For those who are aware of and ascribe to rationalism — and those, of course who were close with any of the people allegedly killed by the cult's members — this unfolding tale has likely gone on for far too long.

More on Zizians: Members of AI Fringe Group Arrested for Two Killings


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