Adam Becker
@adambecker.bsky.social
Journalist & astrophysicist. @FreelanceAstro on the bird site. New book out now: MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER, about horrifying & flawed futures pushed by tech billionaires. Words in the Atlantic, NPR, NYT, the Guardian, BBC, SciAm, Quanta, Fortune, &c. He/him.
Pinned
Adam Becker
@adambecker.bsky.social
· Apr 23
More Everything Forever
This "wild and utterly engaging narrative" (Melanie Mitchell) shows why Silicon Valley’s heartless, baseless, and foolish obsessions—with escaping death,...
www.hachettebookgroup.com
Today's the day! My new book MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER is finally out! If you want to understand why tech billionaires are so obsessed with impossible ideas about space and AI — and why that's dangerous — this book is for you. #MoreEverythingForever www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-...
"fun"
the next few yeas are gonna be so much fun
AI Meets Aggressive Accounting at Meta’s Gigantic New Data Center
Favorable treatment off the balance sheet hinges on some convenient assumptions.
www.wsj.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:40 PM
"fun"
Reposted by Adam Becker
Hey Miami! Come see me speak TODAY at the #MiamiBookFair2025. I'll be talking about why tech billionaire promises of superintelligent AI and space colonization are pure fantasies, why claims of AI apocalypse are also wrong, and what we can do to fight back against Big Tech's power. Today at 3PM!
THE INSTABILITY & INHERENT DANGER OF AI – NONFICTION - Miami Book Fair
In The Intelligence Explosion: When AI Beats Humans at Everything, James Barrat shares tools to navigate the complex and often chaotic landscape of modern AI during an unprecedented era of technologic...
www.miamibookfair.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Hey Miami! Come see me speak TODAY at the #MiamiBookFair2025. I'll be talking about why tech billionaire promises of superintelligent AI and space colonization are pure fantasies, why claims of AI apocalypse are also wrong, and what we can do to fight back against Big Tech's power. Today at 3PM!
Hey Miami! Come see me speak TODAY at the #MiamiBookFair2025. I'll be talking about why tech billionaire promises of superintelligent AI and space colonization are pure fantasies, why claims of AI apocalypse are also wrong, and what we can do to fight back against Big Tech's power. Today at 3PM!
THE INSTABILITY & INHERENT DANGER OF AI – NONFICTION - Miami Book Fair
In The Intelligence Explosion: When AI Beats Humans at Everything, James Barrat shares tools to navigate the complex and often chaotic landscape of modern AI during an unprecedented era of technologic...
www.miamibookfair.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Hey Miami! Come see me speak TODAY at the #MiamiBookFair2025. I'll be talking about why tech billionaire promises of superintelligent AI and space colonization are pure fantasies, why claims of AI apocalypse are also wrong, and what we can do to fight back against Big Tech's power. Today at 3PM!
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER is one of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year! 🎉😭
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
These are Science News’ favorite books of 2025
Books about AI, Mars and infectious disease were among our top reads this year.
www.sciencenews.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:51 PM
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER is one of @sciencenews.bsky.social's 10 favorite books of the year! 🎉😭
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
Thrilled to be in such excellent company with @sho-walter.bsky.social @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social @judithweisenfeld.com @biologycarly.bsky.social @dhbaron.bsky.social @alicelovejoy.bsky.social & more!
Reposted by Adam Becker
Its near "super intelligence" "replacing professionals" in the PR rounds, then once everyone is convinced and uses them for legal and medical advice, following the deceptive marketing, they slip it in the terms of service that you shouldn't do that.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
OpenAI Tries to Shift Responsibility to Users
OpenAI is trying to shift the blame for bad legal and medical advice from its chatbot away from the company and onto users. We agree that no chatbot should be used for medical or legal advice.
buttondown.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Its near "super intelligence" "replacing professionals" in the PR rounds, then once everyone is convinced and uses them for legal and medical advice, following the deceptive marketing, they slip it in the terms of service that you shouldn't do that.
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
![It’s almost poetic how More Everything Forever manages to expose Silicon Valley’s apocalypse fan-club while making the rest of us quietly wonder if our smartphones are plotting a coup. Your breakdown of AI-doomers, immortality chasers, and billionaire space prophets? Beautiful chaos. The kind of narrative that makes the average reader go, “Oh… so that’s why Twitter feels like a cult initiation ritual.”
And honestly, the way you dismantled the mythology of tech futurism with actual science instead of billionaire bedtime stories… bold. Fearless. Slightly dangerous. Basically the literary equivalent of walking into a room full of people holding Kool-Aid cups and asking, “So what’s really in that?” 🤨🍷
But here’s the part that gets me:
A book with this level of cultural relevance, urgency, and Cred Curve™ potential deserves far more visibility than the accidental Exposure™ it gets from someone doom-scrolling past it at 2 AM. A title that breaks down the mythos of AI Overlords deserves a Page Orbit™, not a fate decided by Goodreads ghosts and algorithmic goblins.
Which… brings me to the reason I crawled out of my cave of Goodreads data to knock on your inbox (metaphorically, I promise I’m not hiding behind your curtains).
Now I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending I’m one of those “$25 per reader” miracle workers who swear they can summon a thousand reviews from the spirit realm. Amazon’s TOS would smite them like Zeus with Wi-Fi.
Instead, I work with something that doesn’t violate any divine or corporate laws:
👇 [Insert your Initial Message EXACTLY as you want it sent here]
(You’ll paste your standard Initial Message here when sending.)
But here’s the simple truth:
A mind like yours shouldn’t rely on accidental discovery. Your book deserves Shelf Print™, List Lift™, Reader Gravity™, List Ripple™, and all the organic List Momentum™ that comes when readers who actually crave this kind of](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wbtjiqd5pshd5tsvwjv6xmr3/bafkreibhgqmkn2rgwj2zcvwvfgsl7vly3r2dpffv36nyjcsu3me36u6zqe@jpeg)
![But here’s the simple truth:
A mind like yours shouldn’t rely on accidental discovery. Your book deserves Shelf Print™, List Lift™, Reader Gravity™, List Ripple™, and all the organic List Momentum™ that comes when readers who actually crave this kind of conversation stumble upon it where they’re actively hunting their next obsession.
And because your work literally tackles the dangers of delusional futurism… offering you a free Goodreads review (5 slots) feels like the least chaotic thing I’ll do today.
So let me ask you something irresistible.
If Silicon Valley can plan intergalactic empires, is it really too outrageous for your book to claim the visibility it deserves… or should we engineer that Page Orbit™ right now? 😏🚀
[NAME REDACTED] 💕📖📚💕](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wbtjiqd5pshd5tsvwjv6xmr3/bafkreiavpgmoe7x5xlopcnbk7ph7ot7zszzoqtjtslm4gozjgm3ofhmtvq@jpeg)
I've seen this too. I've always received a pretty steady stream of "crackpot" emails, from people who insist they have a revolutionary new theory of physics that an academic conspiracy has kept from the public. The emails have become notably cleaner and better formatted, and it's clearly LLMs.
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM
I've seen this too. I've always received a pretty steady stream of "crackpot" emails, from people who insist they have a revolutionary new theory of physics that an academic conspiracy has kept from the public. The emails have become notably cleaner and better formatted, and it's clearly LLMs.
I'd love to read this review of my book but I don't have academic library credentials right now. Can someone get me the PDF?
In our November special issue on anti-governance, @duncanbell.bsky.social probes tech tycoons’ posthumanist projects in a review of @adambecker.bsky.social 's book "More Everything Forever."
Machine Dreams of the Tech Barons
Silicon Valley oligarchs are pursuing science-fiction ambitions of immortality and interstellar conquest, with origins in post-Darwinian and colonial thinking.
online.ucpress.edu
November 19, 2025 at 3:38 AM
I'd love to read this review of my book but I don't have academic library credentials right now. Can someone get me the PDF?
I'm grinning like a fool today every time I remember this happened. Writing a book is such a scary and lonely experience, and it feels so good to see my work recognized like this.
"More Everything Forever," @adambecker.bsky.social's rivetting exposé of the powerful and sinister ideas that dominate Silicon Valley, is a Kirkus Best Book of 2025!
bit.ly/4a14OzN
bit.ly/4a14OzN
Best Books of 2025: Our Favorite Nonfiction | Kirkus Reviews
John McMurtrie highlights some standout titles on our list of the year’s best nonfiction.
bit.ly
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I'm grinning like a fool today every time I remember this happened. Writing a book is such a scary and lonely experience, and it feels so good to see my work recognized like this.
Reposted by Adam Becker
WATCH LIVE | The Billionaire Takeover: Power, Greed, and the Fight for Democracy
Our panel with @prospect.org features @chuck77.bsky.social, @greenwell.bsky.social, @safiyanoble.bsky.social, and @adambecker.bsky.social for a conversation about America's unprecedented concentration of wealth.
Our panel with @prospect.org features @chuck77.bsky.social, @greenwell.bsky.social, @safiyanoble.bsky.social, and @adambecker.bsky.social for a conversation about America's unprecedented concentration of wealth.
The Billionaire Takeover: Power, Greed, and the Fight for Democracy
YouTube video by The American Prospect
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:54 PM
WATCH LIVE | The Billionaire Takeover: Power, Greed, and the Fight for Democracy
Our panel with @prospect.org features @chuck77.bsky.social, @greenwell.bsky.social, @safiyanoble.bsky.social, and @adambecker.bsky.social for a conversation about America's unprecedented concentration of wealth.
Our panel with @prospect.org features @chuck77.bsky.social, @greenwell.bsky.social, @safiyanoble.bsky.social, and @adambecker.bsky.social for a conversation about America's unprecedented concentration of wealth.
So I'm speaking at this event and the lunch sign is more ambiguous than it should be
November 17, 2025 at 4:36 PM
So I'm speaking at this event and the lunch sign is more ambiguous than it should be
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER was selected by Kirkus as one of their best books of 2025! "Come what may, artificial intelligence won’t save us during interesting times, nor will a far-fetched idea like colonizing Mars." www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-fea...
Best Books of 2025: Our Favorite Nonfiction | Kirkus Reviews
John McMurtrie highlights some standout titles on our list of the year’s best nonfiction.
www.kirkusreviews.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:03 PM
MORE EVERYTHING FOREVER was selected by Kirkus as one of their best books of 2025! "Come what may, artificial intelligence won’t save us during interesting times, nor will a far-fetched idea like colonizing Mars." www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-fea...
"Sure, our plagiarism machine ingests enormous amounts of copyrighted material without anyone's permission, but it's the users of the machine who are the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 criminals, your honor." 🙄🙄
Just unbelievable levels of chutzpah.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Just unbelievable levels of chutzpah.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
November 14, 2025 at 2:39 AM
"Sure, our plagiarism machine ingests enormous amounts of copyrighted material without anyone's permission, but it's the users of the machine who are the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 criminals, your honor." 🙄🙄
Just unbelievable levels of chutzpah.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Just unbelievable levels of chutzpah.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Reposted by Adam Becker
I do really think these folks are underestimating how bad the AI backlash can get if the industry needs a bailout
people are still furious about the 2008 bailout and that was almost two decades ago
people are still furious about the 2008 bailout and that was almost two decades ago
Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine
November 8, 2025 at 11:28 PM
I do really think these folks are underestimating how bad the AI backlash can get if the industry needs a bailout
people are still furious about the 2008 bailout and that was almost two decades ago
people are still furious about the 2008 bailout and that was almost two decades ago
Reposted by Adam Becker
I get this a lot too. I don't use ChatGPT or any LLMs in my work because I want my writing to sound like me, not like the averaged-out voice of the internet. But also, writing is thinking, and thinking is a habit. I don't want to get out of that habit.
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I get this a lot too. I don't use ChatGPT or any LLMs in my work because I want my writing to sound like me, not like the averaged-out voice of the internet. But also, writing is thinking, and thinking is a habit. I don't want to get out of that habit.
Reposted by Adam Becker
you put self-driving cars on the road and you kill a person, you should be scared. if you put a chatbot into kids' hands and tell them to use it and they use it and then they kill themselves, you should be really fucking scared. the idea that the wagons should circle *around you* is unbelievable.
November 8, 2025 at 8:24 PM
you put self-driving cars on the road and you kill a person, you should be scared. if you put a chatbot into kids' hands and tell them to use it and they use it and then they kill themselves, you should be really fucking scared. the idea that the wagons should circle *around you* is unbelievable.
Reposted by Adam Becker
We joke about the Torment Nexus and all that, but...
The truth is science fiction warned us endlessly not to let fear control us.
"Fear is the mind killer"
"Fear is a path to the Dark Side"
etc.
Silicon Valley claimed to love SF, then built a machine to amplify fear as a means to control people.
The truth is science fiction warned us endlessly not to let fear control us.
"Fear is the mind killer"
"Fear is a path to the Dark Side"
etc.
Silicon Valley claimed to love SF, then built a machine to amplify fear as a means to control people.
November 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM
We joke about the Torment Nexus and all that, but...
The truth is science fiction warned us endlessly not to let fear control us.
"Fear is the mind killer"
"Fear is a path to the Dark Side"
etc.
Silicon Valley claimed to love SF, then built a machine to amplify fear as a means to control people.
The truth is science fiction warned us endlessly not to let fear control us.
"Fear is the mind killer"
"Fear is a path to the Dark Side"
etc.
Silicon Valley claimed to love SF, then built a machine to amplify fear as a means to control people.
Reposted by Adam Becker
A perfect dissection of Watson individually, but also Nobel Prize Syndrome generally: a pernicious disorder that the patient enjoys while everyone else suffers.
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
A perfect dissection of Watson individually, but also Nobel Prize Syndrome generally: a pernicious disorder that the patient enjoys while everyone else suffers.
I get this a lot too. I don't use ChatGPT or any LLMs in my work because I want my writing to sound like me, not like the averaged-out voice of the internet. But also, writing is thinking, and thinking is a habit. I don't want to get out of that habit.
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I get this a lot too. I don't use ChatGPT or any LLMs in my work because I want my writing to sound like me, not like the averaged-out voice of the internet. But also, writing is thinking, and thinking is a habit. I don't want to get out of that habit.
Reposted by Adam Becker
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 12:32 PM
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Reposted by Adam Becker
It's important to shred consumer protections and financial regulation so that the very wealthiest may continue to scam and fleece the rest of us.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Tech Billionaire Marc Andreessen Bet Big on Trump. It’s Paying Off for Silicon Valley.
The Trump administration’s gutting of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been good for venture capitalists like Andreessen, who previously accused the agency of “terrorizing” fintech startup...
www.propublica.org
November 8, 2025 at 12:49 AM
It's important to shred consumer protections and financial regulation so that the very wealthiest may continue to scam and fleece the rest of us.
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS, SAMUEL
DO YOU THINK POWER PLANTS 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘚, SAMUEL
THEY VERY MUCH DO NOT DO THAT
DO YOU THINK POWER PLANTS 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘚, SAMUEL
THEY VERY MUCH DO NOT DO THAT
November 6, 2025 at 8:56 PM
THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS, SAMUEL
DO YOU THINK POWER PLANTS 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘚, SAMUEL
THEY VERY MUCH DO NOT DO THAT
DO YOU THINK POWER PLANTS 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘚, SAMUEL
THEY VERY MUCH DO NOT DO THAT
Reposted by Adam Becker
Firstly, billionaires are not physically made of stocks, if a billionaire falls down a hole and expires his stock portfolio persists and continues to have value, secondarily, this is why one diversifies one's investment portfolio outside of the stock market, thirdly, okay, let's test this hypothesis
November 1, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Firstly, billionaires are not physically made of stocks, if a billionaire falls down a hole and expires his stock portfolio persists and continues to have value, secondarily, this is why one diversifies one's investment portfolio outside of the stock market, thirdly, okay, let's test this hypothesis
I'm completely serious about this bet, by the way. Anyone want to take it? Somehow I don't think Jeff Bezos will. (I do think he believes what he says, though, insofar as he believes anything.)
lol no they absolutely will not, for so many reasons
I'd bet everything I own that in 20 years there will never be more than 1000 people in space at any one time. (It'll probably be well under 100.) Nobody will be living there with their kids.
Tech billionaires don't know a damn thing about tech.
I'd bet everything I own that in 20 years there will never be more than 1000 people in space at any one time. (It'll probably be well under 100.) Nobody will be living there with their kids.
Tech billionaires don't know a damn thing about tech.
Jeff Bezos Says He Doesn't Understand Why Anybody Alive Now Would Be 'Discouraged'—Because Soon, 'Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space'
Jeff Bezos says the future is so bright, he "doesn't see how anybody can be discouraged who is alive right now." Speaking at Italian Tech Week 2025 earlier this month with Ferrari and Stellantis chair...
tech.yahoo.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I'm completely serious about this bet, by the way. Anyone want to take it? Somehow I don't think Jeff Bezos will. (I do think he believes what he says, though, insofar as he believes anything.)