Askwho Casts AI reads Scott Alexander's 'Against Against Handover': Distinguishing Successionism from Handoverism

The Askwho Casts AI podcast released an audio reading of Scott Alexander's article 'Against Against Handover' from the Astral Codex Ten blog on October 20, 2026. This episode is not an original interview but converts a deep philosophical essay into an accessible audio format, suitable for readers interested in systematic explorations of AI governance controversies.

In the original text, Alexander first clarifies a common conceptual confusion: he distinguishes 'Successionism' (the belief that AIs should succeed humans as rulers of Earth, potentially overriding human interests) from 'Handoverism' (the idea that humans might be best served by putting aligned AIs in positions of control). He argues that many critics fail to make this distinction, incorrectly lumping AI safety researchers who find the latter plausible with anti-humanists.

To concretize this argument, Alexander constructs five hypothetical governance visions, ranging from weakest to strongest. The first is 'Kemalist AI', where military AIs are aligned to democracy itself rather than any individual, preventing elite coups. The second is 'President Claude', imagining a perfectly aligned, incorruptible AI running for US President and outperforming human candidates on measurable metrics. The third is 'Parliament of Angels', where each citizen has an AI representative acting in their best interest within a direct democracy. The fourth is 'The Night Watchman', describing an archipelago of self-governing communities protected by a superintelligence that enforces basic order and exit rights. The fifth is 'God', a benevolent digital superintelligence arranging the universe directly.