science

Zizians

Zizians is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Zizians rather than just read about it. In short: The Zizians are an informal group of rationalists allegedly involved in six violent deaths in the United States—three in 2022 and three in 2025. The term Zizians derives from the name of Ziz LaSota, a member of the group who is sometimes characterized as their leader.

Key takeaways

Zizians belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Zizians to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Zizians from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Zizians are an informal group of rationalists allegedly involved in six violent deaths in the United States—three in 2022 and three in 2025. The term Zizians derives from the name of Ziz LaSota, a member of the group who is sometimes characterized as their leader. The Zizians do not use this name or consider themselves to have a clearly identified leader, or even to be members of a group. They advocate a distinctive ideology including anarchism, veganism, and the notion that the hemispheres of the brain can have distinct genders and conflicting interests. They have been widely described as a cult. Federal prosecutors say the Zizians are associated with persons of interest in the murders of four people: David Maland in Vermont (a U.S. Border Patrol agent), Curtis Lind in California (a landlord), and Richard and Rita Zajko in Pennsylvania (the parents of one of the group members). In addition, Ophelia Bauckholt and Emma Borhanian, both associates of the Zizians, were killed during altercations with Maland and Lind, respectively.

Beliefs A small offshoot of the rationalist community, Zizians hold a distinctive ideology combining anarchism, veganism, transhumanism, and radical interpretations of rationalist and effective altruism (EA) principles. They identify as "vegan anarchotranshumanists", emphasizing animal rights and viewing meat consumption as a severe ethical violation, prioritizing the preservation of all sentient life against threats like artificial intelligence (AI). Zizians' beliefs are rooted in an interpretation of "timeless decision theory", a rationalist alternative to causal decision theory. They see it as requiring resolute opposition to perceived moral wrongs, such as blackmail or societal norms. This stance has led the Zizians to conflicts with organizations like the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) and the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) over alleged ethical failings, including misuse of donor funds and anti-trans discrimination. Zizians have unique psychological theories, such as "debucketing", aimed at liberating people from societal constraints to pursue their moral ideals, and the notion that the hemispheres of the brain can have distinct genders and conflicting interests. They claim to practice unihemispheric sleep (UHS), a form of sleep deprivation intended to "jailbreak" the mind, which they believe can enhance their commitment to their cause. In 2018, a member committed suicide, which an anonymous rationalist alleged was caused by that member attempting UHS. LaSota later wrote a blog post claiming the member did not perform the practice correctly. In a discussion with CFAR co-founder Anna Salamon, LaSota argued in favor of UHS, pointing to the suicide as proof of its effectiveness. Zizians' adherence to "heroic responsibility" and fixation on apocalyptic scenarios, such as Roko's basilisk, drives extreme actions to uphold their moral framework, which they believe mainstream rationalists lack. The group has been called a cult or cult-like by publications such as The Independent, the Associated Press, SFGate, and Reason. The Boston Globe and The New York Times have compared the Zizians to the Manson Family. Similarly, Anna Salamon, the director of the Center for Applied Rationality, compared the Zizian belief system to that of a doomsday cult. The Zizians are mostly transgender or non-binary. LaSota's writings include claims that transgender women are cognitively uniquely suited for artificial intelligence safety research.

Murders with alleged Zizian involvement

Curtis Lind

In 2017, Ziz LaSota began recruiting a "Rationalist Fleet" of followers to live on boats on the ocean, including a World War II–era tugboat, built as the Panameta and subsequently renamed Caleb, that they sailed from Alaska to California. After struggling with the upkeep of the tugboat they had been living on, which they eventually abandoned, some members of the Zizians opted to move into trailers and converted box trucks. Curtis Lind, who docked a boat in the same harbor as the group, offered to let them move into a lot he owned in Vallejo, California. During the COVID-19 pandemic, group members allegedly stopped paying rent and placed locks on trailers meant for other tenants. When Lind sued the group for back rent, one member allegedly brandished a knife, causing Lind to start carrying a pistol. On November 15, 2022, Lind, then 80, was, according to his own account, attacked by a group of people after being called in to fix a water leak. He said he was struck in the head, stabbed repeatedly (leaving "about 50" puncture wounds), and cut severely on the back of his neck ("like somebody was trying to cut my head off"). He was left impaled by a samurai sword, and his right eye was punctured three times, blinding him in that eye. After he regained consciousness, Lind shot two of those involved in the altercation, killing 31-year-old Emma Borhanian and wounding the other. Both had been arrested alongside LaSota at a 2019 protest against an event organized by the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR), and Borhanian had reported LaSota's 2022 alleged drowning. Two of Lind's alleged attackers were charged with Borhanian's murder under the theory that their actions precipitated Lind's self-defense, under California's felony murder rule. Their trial has been scheduled for March 3, 2026. LaSota was contacted by police during the investigation but not charged. On January 17, 2025, three days before a shootout with U.S. Border Patrol officers on the east coast, Lind was stabbed to death and had his throat slit outside his gated property in Vallejo. Lind had been expected to be an important witness in the trial of the alleged attackers for the Borhanian felony murder charge, and stopping him from testifying was alleged as the motive for his killing. Prosecutors charged a 22-year-old data scientist with Lind's murder. The accused dictated to reporters a statement addressed to the well-known rationalist thought leader Eliezer Yudkowsky, saying that he was a follower of Yudkowsky but is not anymore. Yudkowsky refused to read the statement and said, "Audience should not be a reward for crime."

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Zizians

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Zizians claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Zizians before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Zizians ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Zizians

In research: Zizians appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Zizians in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Zizians is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anarchism in the United States, Apocalyptic groups, Cults of personality, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Zizians outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Zizians in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Zizians means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Zizians out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zizians in simple terms?

Why does Zizians matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Zizians?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Zizians.