Ziz LaSota, a character plucked straight out of a dystopian novella, pleaded for mercy in a Maryland courtroom, lamenting that her vegan diet was a matter of life and death. Apparently, jailhouse cuisine lacks the kale-and-quinoa finesse she demands. The prosecution, however, sees through her gastronomic theatrics, painting Ziz as the ringleader of a murder-linked extremist group. But, let’s not get too excited—she’s officially booked for trespassing, resisting arrest, and some minor gun charges. Quite the résumé for someone once thought to be dead, a feat she pulled to dodge an investigation. Naturally, she’s already been getting her plant-based meals, as the jail’s assistant administrator assures. Yet, the judge wasn’t buying the sob story, denying her bail.
Ziz’s notoriety stretches beyond the prison walls, having once mingled with the Rationalists—a Bay Area tech cult obsessed with logical thinking and the looming AI apocalypse. Their guest list? Oh, just the usual suspects like Peter Thiel and Sam Bankman-Fried, with a sprinkle of Elon Musk and Steven Pinker for good measure. Rationalism, to this crowd, is akin to a secret handshake among Silicon Valley’s elite, a language of its own.
Ziz, who identifies as transgender, started as your garden-variety Rationalist, dreaming of saving the world with spreadsheets. But then she went off-script, embracing violent extremism and ranking AI’s threat to humanity as the world’s top problem—because, clearly, nothing else matters. Now, with six bodies in the wake, Ziz and her crew, the “Zizians,” find themselves awaiting trial. The Rationalists nervously watch their reputation circle the drain, all thanks to the Manson-esque comparisons swirling in the media.
As the saga unfolds, one can only wonder: What does it take for a tech-obsessed idealist to transform into a radical pariah? And more importantly, will the Rationalists ever recover from the Ziz-induced PR nightmare? Or perhaps they’ll just rebrand and carry on, as tech circles are wont to do, with a fresh layer of jargon to cover the cracks.
