A deep look at “the Zizians”, a cult-like group of young tech people exiled from Silicon Valley's rationalist community and allegedly linked to a killing spree
A handful of gifted young tech people set out to save the world. For years, WIRED has been tracking each twist …
Related Coverage
- A Silicon Valley Intellectual Society Kicked Them Out. Now They're Tied to a Killing Spree. Wall Street Journal · Zusha Elinson
- Police arrest apparent leader of cultlike ‘Zizian’ group linked to multiple killings in the US Associated Press · Michael Casey
- Vegan computer savants with Bay Area ties linked to deaths across U.S., authorities say Los Angeles Times
- Zizians: What we know about the ‘cult’ linked to six deaths BBC · Mike Wendling
- MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent whose killing in Vermont during a traffic stop near the Canadian border has been tied to a cultlike group … Associated Press
- Their brainy children got involved with the cultlike ‘Zizians.’ Now these parents are mystified — and scared San Francisco Chronicle
- A person linked to the cultlike ‘Zizians’ stands accused of murder. Their identity remains a mystery San Francisco Chronicle
- Investigations Into 6 Killings Look to a Fringe Group Known as the Zizians New York Times
- #732: Online accents and fast fashion frontiers Links I Would Gchat … · Caitlin Dewey
- 5 questions for Internet Works' Peter Chandler Politico · Derek Robertson
- “Most of the people involved in this story wind up either dead, maimed, spending months in a mental hospital, languishing in jail, or gone underground. It's a tragedy from almost any angle, especially because, at the outset, most of these people were idealists committed to doing as much good as possible in a world they saw as beset by existential threats.” … @teezeh@ieji.de · Thomas Cloer
Discussion
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@pykea
Mikhail GortexChav
on bluesky
this is an incredible read, from which my main takeaway is: it's increasingly difficult to believe that extensively studying computer science does not radically up a person's risk of becoming a dangerous psychopathic narcissist. www.wired.com/story/deliri...
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@evrat
Evan Ratliff
on bluesky
For the last 2 years, for WIRED, I've been on the trail of the Zizians, gifted young people who set out to save the world and ended up enveloped in violence and death. You may have seen headlines about them. This is their story, based on years of reporting in real time: www.wir…
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@marklittle
Mark Little
on bluesky
“Gervais-sociopaths” was a foundational concept in LaSota's increasingly tangled ideology" — The Office meets Fight Club — This is a jaw-dropping story — www.wired.com/story/deliri...
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@sesmith
S. E. Smith
on bluesky
EPIC longread on the rise, fall, and general chaos of a group of techies who went to a dark, dark place in the name of saving the world. There's so much in here I don't know where to begin other than to say it's worth making time for.
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@zekefaux
Zeke Faux
on bluesky
(he wrote what looks to be an amazing definitive story of ZIZ) — www.wired.com/story/deliri...
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@mpchlets
Michael
on bluesky
Good write up on the fracturing and crime spree of a splinter group from the EA/CFAR/MIRI folks — This is the underbelly of the Bay Area — Attracting people who think they can save the world might just lead to delusions of grandeur couple with rationalism justifies kills — …
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@olifranklinwallis
Oli Franklin-Wallis
on bluesky
This story, by the legend that is @evrat.bsky.social, is both wildly timely, impeccably reported, and quite possibly the most insane murder story I've read in years www.wired.com/story/deliri...
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@keithsenkowski.com
Keith
on bluesky
This is easily one of the wildest stories I have read in a while with this amazing opening, — “The trouble, as I went along, was separating the truth from the delirium. I wasn't always sure that I could. To be honest, I'm still not. But here we are, and a story has to start …
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@zachwritesstuff
Zachary Siegel
on x
I think the evidence is in: Turning the ideal of “doing as much as good as possible” into a mathematical formula will lead you into the gates of insanity.
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@wired
@wired
on x
WIRED has been following these people for years, tracking each twist and turn of their alleged descent into violent mayhem, often as it was happening. [image]
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@olifranklin
Oli Franklin-Wallis
on x
This @WIRED longread on the Zizian murder cult is absolutely wild https://www.wired.com/...
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@wired
@wired
on x
The fatal shooting of a US border patrol agent in Vermont. The stabbing death of a landlord in California. An elderly couple murdered in Pennsylvania. Who are the so-called Zizians, the group allegedly linked to all these killings? https://www.wired.com/... [image]
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@ev_rat
Evan Ratliff
on x
I spent the last 2 years on the trail of the Zizians, a group of technically gifted young people who set out to save the world. Their ideas led them down a path littered with violence and death. Along the way 6 people have been killed, 6 are jail, others have gone underground. [i…
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@calebhannan
Caleb Hannan
on x
It feels very comforting, in a Twitter-circa-2105 sort of way, to know that Evan was the only media member in attendance at small preliminary hearings in multiple states a year or two before an incredible, tragic story would become national news.
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@wired
@wired
on x
With the arrest of three key members this week, the world is starting to understand how the story of the Zizians might end. Here's how it began—and the delirious, impossible, true account of how it all went wrong, by @ev_rat: https://www.wired.com/... [image]
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@ev_rat
Evan Ratliff
on x
You may have seen Zizians headlines, as they entered the media and culture war maelstrom described as a “trans vegan cult” “anarchists” and AI doomers gone mad. But I can assure you, you don't know the story. Here's my best shot at it, years in the making: https://www.wired.com/.…
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r/Longreads
r
on reddit
The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians