# Episode 139: The Rational Doomers

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-139-the-rational-doomers
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episode-139-the-rational-doomers.md
Podcast: [The Theory of Anything](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-theory-of-anything-859886)
Published: 2026-05-09T11:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/four-strands/episodes/Episode-139-The-Rational-Doomers-e3j42pi
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/14b6fc10/podcast/play/119720178/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-9%2F97755112-ae90-0ce9-9f36-ff5a21a31601.mp3
Processing state: processed
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-theory-of-anything-859886/episodes/episode-139-the-rational-doomers
Duration seconds: 4226

## Resource

This week we talk about doomers, specifically AI doomers. Why has it become such a popular notion, especially amongst those who consider themselves the most rational kinds of people, that this kind of apocalypse, amongst others, is imminent? What assumptions are behind this pessimistic assertion? This episode was actually entirely unplanned. We started recording another episode and got off on to this tangent and thought it was a fun topic.

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## Transcript

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