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The "rationalists" are more like a strange AI cult than a scientific or philosophical program. (I always put "rationalist" in quotes when referring to this grou
by timmytokyo 3y ago
The "rationalists" are more like a strange AI cult than a scientific or philosophical program. (I always put "rationalist" in quotes when referring to this group of people, because based on the things these people believe, it's a total misnomer.) At this point they're not even really trying to hide it anymore, with their prophet, Eliezer Yudkowsky, wailing in the wilderness about the imminent end of humanity. We've seen similar eschatological belief systems in recent history and they don't usually end well.
- kneebonian 3y agoReminds me of the reasonabilists from Parks and Rec > The Reasonabilists named themselves because they believe if people criticize them, it'll seem like they are attacking something reasonable.
- lvncelot 3y ago> I always put "rationalist" in quotes when referring to this group of people, because based on the things these people believe I always found it amusing that Roko's Basilisk[1], which was incepted in the LessWrong forum, was just a roundabout way of adding eternal damnation of your "soul" (or rather, the recreation of your consciousness) to the already hilariously pseudo-religious way of treating a potential AGI. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk (I know that Roko's Balisisk was not widely accepted and I don't want to paint all LessWrong users with the same brush here, but I still think it's a quaint example of where supposed "rationality" can take you.)