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this post was submitted on 03 May 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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A year ago, a local Vermont reporter summarized the manifesto of Zajko the Zizian. She seemed to blame what went wrong on Rationalists + the government + Maximilian Snyder who is accused of killing their former landlord. She denied murdering her parents and wanted the world to know that she and her friends never called themselves Zizians.
A few details that remind us of the horrors we are skirting around. Imprimis:
II. Another local story about a court appearance.
III. Ziz Lasota asked a rhetorical question about what might have happened to missing people who got too close to her:
The medical records might just mention trans stuff or an Asperger's diagnosis. Sneering has not felt adequate for a while but I don't know what else to write.
Edit/ Zajko, who wrote “I’ve never seen (Ziz) do an evil thing,” also wrote that Ziz told her to murder an associate or Ziz would murder her. Our intuitions about what went on in those box trucks and on the boats are unreliable and the reality may have been worse than sleep deprivation and paranoid ramblings.
Also a year ago, Maximilian Bentley Snyder the Zizian dictated a 1,500 word manifesto telling Yudkowsky to become a vegan. This one was published in full. Three of the Zizians have issued statements leaving just Ziz, Youngblut, Suri Dao, and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham alive but silent. Two died after attacking outsiders, and two took their own lives, so I count 11 known associates.
e/ Unlilke the 20-pager this was published!
Note to self: revise manifesto to be 22% less weeb
First as tragedy: the Scientologists call their teachings "tech"
Then as farce: Maximilian Snyder calls his methods of optimizing D&D characters "tech" (I am told that people who attended CFAR workshops used to call their teachings "tech")
He posted on LessWrong and won an AI Alignment Award in 2023. Nate Soares, Yudkowsky's right-hand man, endorsed his paper. Curtis Lind was attacked with a sword in November 2022, and the Zaijkos were murdered in their daughter's childhood bedroom around 31 December 2023. It sounds like at least one Zizian was still having friendly exchanges with MIRI leaders well after the 2019 protest at the CFAR reunion (although it is possible that Snyder discovered Ziz in 2024, the year he applied to marry Youngblut).