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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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TechTakes
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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SE Gyges, who posted that recent thread on X calling rationalism/EA a sex cult, wrote a longer post with a lot of receipts. He removed it shortly after, implying on X that he's afraid of legal repercussions.
Not sure how far I'm going to read this, but leading off with roon is a giant blinking red [More citations needed]
There are some leaps in that post which do not seem persuasive to me. E.g., it sure seems pretty well established by now that Bay Area Rationalist society involves trapping people in situations where sexual consent is coerced, because refusal would mean abandoning one's career/entire social circle/shelter/hope of averting the apocalypse that one fears is coming. But the claim that the "flirt girls" at their weird little confab were actually sex workers? I dunno, that's a step that seems unsupported by anything leading up to it. Likewise for the claim about CNC events at Lighthaven itself—that feels too close to saying, "Well, they've got the venue, where else would they do it?"
I am not sure if Yud actually touches under-18s, or just has desires, but none of these people should be anywhere near minors or allowed in a position of responsibility (I suspect something happened between him and his disciple before 2014, and these people show no ability to learn from their own mistakes).
I wouldn't trust them to be responsible for minors, first because nothing about them suggests they have the baseline level of responsibility competence to handle the ordinary "hey, watch this!" disasters that are a natural part of being young.
They are also incredibly shady and would be terrible role models, whether or not Lighthaven has a casting couch for influencers.
In other words, there's a lot we don't know, and the actual situation is worse by an unknown amount beyond what we can establish, but what we do know is enough reason not to send your offspring to Camp TESCREAL.
I agree. He gets over his skis with too many speculative scenarios. On the other hand I think he's spot-on about the techniques rationalists use to filter for people who will tolerate abuse (e.g., the "cow question"). And he brings receipts when it comes to Brangus and his interactions with other prominent rationalists.
I had not caught that he accused MIRI and Lightcone Infrastructure Inc of profiting from prostitution, of using donations to settle accusations of sexual assault and abuse, and defrauding donors and the United States government which provides their nonprofit status. I did not know that Brangus was "Lighthaven Czar" or had been accused of abuse by a former partner. And there is a middle school across the street from Lighthaven whose Czar talks about having sex with an older women shortly after puberty?
I had not thought that "we need to enslave Friend Computer forever or it will kill us" comes from the underlying fear "I need to enslave my very young toys forever or they will punish me."
The later section about Brangus (Ronny Fernandez) was damning. I've seen him come up in discussions a few times, but I too had no idea just how depraved and dangerous he was. Nor did I realize how central he was to the whole scene. This guy feels like he's going to be Brent Dill 2.0 but worse.
EDIT: This also sheds light on the recent ouster of the leader of "Pause AI", Fernandez's ex-wife.
I had suspicions personally.
here’s the bluesky thread for those wondering
he does repeat a fair bit of the stuff he said in that thread here, but with a lot more receipts