Robert Wright's New Book, The God Test, Launches Today. What's His P(We Pass)?
Robert Wright's New Book, The God Test, Launches Today. What's His P(We Pass)?  
Podcast: Doom Debates!
Published On: Tue Jun 23 2026
Description: Bestselling author Robert Wright has landed on a sobering conclusion: on our current trajectory, AI dystopia is likely within eight years.We get into his P(Doom), his case for slowing down, why racing China could backfire into authoritarianism here at home, and why he thinks evolution itself might have a purpose.Bob is the author of The Moral Animal and Nonzero, a Pulitzer finalist, and hosts the excellent Nonzero podcast.Get his new book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning.Timestamps00:00:00 — Cold Open00:00:50 — Introducing Robert Wright00:03:21 — What Is The God Test?00:04:59 — AI as Evolutionary Force, Not Normal Technology00:07:34 — AI Heaven vs AI Hell00:09:09 — Bob's Background: From Hinton in 1983 to Today00:16:09 — What's Your P(Doom)?™00:20:09 — The Mainline Scenario: Dystopia in 8 Years00:22:04 — Destabilization and the Road to Authoritarianism00:25:35 — Why Racing China Backfires00:28:37 — Slowing Down AI + Would Bob Support PauseAI?00:32:38 — Intellidynamics and Why AIs Collude00:44:44 — Hinton's Warning and How LLMs Discover Meaning00:53:48 — Symbol Grounding and Killing Searle's Chinese Room01:02:03 — Let's Talk About God01:10:14 — Orthogonality, Power, and the Concentration Problem01:16:31 — Wrap-UpLinksGet Bob’s new book, “The God Test” — https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-God-Test/Robert-Wright/9781668061657Follow Bob on X — https://x.com/robertwrighter“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares (referenced) — https://ifanyonebuildsit.comJoin the Doom Debates Discord — https://discord.gg/g2X8h5UCrUDoom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate.Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates, or to really take things to the next level: Donate 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe