- Author
- Émile P. Torres, Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletter
- Published
- 12 November 2025
- Kind
- Newsletter essay, argued, with quotations and a probability thought experiment
- Original
- www.realtimetechpocalypse.com/p/the-scariest-people-in-the-world
- Subject
- Society and technology
What it is
Émile P. Torres writes the Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletter and has published papers on human extinction. This essay carries a content warning for graphic quotes. It sets out to ask who would end the world if they could.
What it says
- The post claims dual-use technologies could let small groups or lone actors cause civilizational harm.
- Sotos, cited: at 1-in-100 odds each, a few hundred actors doom civilization in 100 years.
- Torres argues the social contract depends on a power gap between states and citizens.
- The post sorts would-be world-destroyers into four types, drawn from the author's 2018 papers.
- It names a new type, Silicon Valley pro-extinctionists, who favor replacing humanity with AGI.
- The author says this new type is a bigger worry than the older types.
What evidence it gives
The essay offers quoted statements from named groups and people. It gives a thought experiment with assumed probabilities, from the author's 2017 writing. It also cites a calculation by John Sotos and several of the author's own papers. It presents no new data.
Interests and limits
The newsletter asks readers to pay, and the author cites their own papers throughout. The probabilities are assumed, not measured. The author says they may be wrong and invites disagreement. Naming individuals as pro-extinctionists is the author's own characterization. The article was read in full, but most reader comments were not loaded.