What’s the deal with all these rationalist cults in tech?

I keep hearing about "Ziz" and the cult murders, which somehow is related to the Center for Applied Rationality.

And a guy named Geoff Anders seems to be still running some sort of kooky "rationalist inspired" cult that seems more Scientology-inspired to me: https://protos.com/arkham-intelligence-reserve-and-the-leverage-research-cult/

All these people are apparently computer engineers in the Bay Area. What gives?