Adam Becker on More Everything Forever and Big Tech’s Future Myths

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Adam Becker is a science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics and the author of the provocative new book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity.

I reached out to Adam because I found his book sharp, timely, and necessary — a long-overdue reality check to the fantasies of techno-utopianism flooding our culture. In More Everything Forever, Becker dissects the dominant visions of the future being sold by Silicon Valley’s billionaire elite: godlike AI, digital immortality, interstellar empires, and a future populated by trillions of posthuman minds. His thesis? These aren’t scientific forecasts. They’re billionaire fever dreams — ideological weapons dressed up as inevitabilities.

Drawing on over fifteen years as a science communicator and journalist, Becker traces how a fringe worldview — steeped in misunderstood sci-fi, hubris, and colonialist logic — has moved from the internet’s margins into university labs, government hearings, and mainstream media. We discuss why these ideas aren’t just wrong; they’re dangerous distractions from the real crises we face: war, climate change, inequality, and a fraying shared reality.

So, if you’ve ever questioned the hype around AI overlords, Mars colonies, or techno-salvation, this conversation is for you.

I hope you enjoy my interview with Adam Becker as much as I did.

My favorite quotes from this conversation with Adam Becker are:

Silicon Valley has confused science fiction with science — and science with branding.

We are solving imaginary future problems while the world burns right in front of us.

AI overlords, Mars colonies, and posthuman utopias aren’t visions of the future. They’re distractions from the present.

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What is More Everything Forever about?

In More Everything Forever, Becker reveals how a seductive techno-utopian vision — pushed by Silicon Valley billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, and Marc Andreessen — distorts our understanding of the future. These power players imagine a world where AI gods, digital immortality, and space empires replace the messy reality of human life. But as Becker shows, this vision isn’t based on science — it’s rooted in science fiction, pseudoscience, and a thirst for power.

Becker connects the dots between this worldview and its origins in fringe online subcultures, misunderstood philosophy, and problematic political ideologies. He argues that the dominant narrative about the future is no longer being written by scientists, philosophers, or democratic institutions — it’s being engineered by oligarchs who mistake dystopias for destiny.

Who is Adam Becker?

Adam Becker is a science journalist with a PhD in astrophysics. His first book, What Is Real?, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and long-listed for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. He has written for Scientific American, Quanta, NPR, the BBC, and The New York Times. He has also been a journalism fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and science communicator-in-residence at the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing. Adam Becker lives in California.