Machiavelli was meant to warn us, not inspire us

Paintings: Pollice Verso by Jean-Léon Gérôme Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito The Nervous System by Gareth Stevens Inc Man proposes god disposes by Edwin Landseer Movies--Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me RoboCop 2 Link to study on AI Self-Replication: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18565? Thanks to lobster clips by @MariuszTyburski and @getyourfootage9144 Music: "Dante's Inferno: The Ninth Circle of Hell" @restforthewicked6842 Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) Seemed fitting (especially visualizing a race of super-intelligent rogue lobsters). 00:00 Intro 01:21 Machiavellianism 03:36 Love or fear? 07:10 How to stay in power 09:57 AI Narrative 16:10 Flattery 18:42 AI Emergence 28:11 Conclusion #philosophy #pessimism #existentialism