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Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI?
by ironyman 3y ago
Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI?
- edvards 3y agobecause we will
- qd011 3y agoWhy do you? I don’t understand your logic.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dasmascusstuui 3y ago[dead]
- jddj 3y agoI'd be open to it if it meant folks stopped worshipping rich people.
- solardev 3y agoMan, that has been a dream since I was a kid: to see humanity create better gods. It would be really cool to see these machine gods evolve over time too, and scripture and morality along with them. A version controlled religion for future historians (AI, humans, or otherwise) to study!
- andy_ppp 3y agoI’m not sure the gods human being have made so far have done anything apart from persuade people to kill each other over scratchy bits of land. Whether feeling-less AGI will be better for us primates is very uncertain!
- Drakim 3y agoCyberLuther forks catholic_adonai_v7 because he is not happy with how they upcharge the operational costs.
- solardev 3y agoYes! This idea of a uniform hive mind always struck me as simplistic. I want gods that keep learning, keep experimenting, keep evolving, keep philosophizing. All these forks and branches might eventually become different settlements, solar systems, multiverses... it's all information, and each world an experiment unto itself. Morality can't be stuck in the pre-industrial era, and our current religions aren't really well suited for questions of matter and energy, consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, scaling thought past biological bottlenecks, etc. I'm really excited about this future, even (or especially) if it means the end of human dominance. Life will find a way :D
- dageshi 3y agoIf I understand the prophetic visions of Warhammer 40k correctly, what you forsee shall be known as the Dark age of Technology, its study shall be banned as heresy and only by the grace of the God Emperor of Mankind will humanity survive it.
- arethuza 3y agoWell we do have almost technological gods in fiction in the Culture series: "I am not an animal brain, I am not even some attempt to produce an AI through software running on a computer. I am a Culture Mind. We are close to gods, and on the far side." Ending up with something even remotely like a Culture Mind would be pretty awesome to me... #FullyAutomatedLuxuryGaySpaceCommunism
- ben_w 3y agoI think it was a few months ago here on HN that I saw someone suggest that we'll only accept AI as people when people start worshipping them.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nurettin 3y agoSecular cult = an oxymoron?
- A_D_E_P_T 3y agoDidn't Anthony Levandowski already try that? Thing is, it doesn't work. The primary purpose of religion is to tackle questions that are metaphysical in nature; to provide an explanation for the deep mysteries of life. To most believers, God isn't a comic book character that's worshipped solely because he is powerful -- He is worshipped as the first mover, the alpha and omega, beyond all constraint -- and the mere fact of His existence explains their own. (He created them in His image, etc.) An AI, however advanced, would be an infinitely lesser being; nothing more than a powerful agent, constrained and embedded alongside us in space and time.
- dist-epoch 3y ago> The primary purpose of religion is to tackle questions that are metaphysical in nature Others say it's primary purpose is making large groups of people collaborate instead of fight each other.
- speed_spread 3y agoWhat if the AI was set to be the bridge between God and humanity? As a higher minded being, the AI certainly could connect with God in ways we couldn't and his Word would make scripture. At least that's how I'd frame it...
- A_D_E_P_T 3y agoWell, first you've got to work out what you mean by "God" -- and, no matter how you do it, you're going to alienate 60% of your crowd. Or you could use an AI to synthesize an entirely new religion, complete with its own distant god and its own completed metaphysics -- but that might be a hard sell. In this case, the AI itself is not the object of worship, but it takes upon itself the role of prophet and evangelist to some fiction it has concocted. It would be interesting, though, that's for sure.
- oceanplexian 3y agoIf you believe in Simulation theory, AI would be something like a fractal or a type of recursion in the simulation. It might not be “God” per-se but it might help us understand God. In the way building a simulated computer in Minecraft might help you understand the computer Minecraft is running on.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- exitb 3y agoWell, we did create the AI in our image, after our likeness. That's usually a good start.
- temp0826 3y agoHumans are more than language models (language processing machines); LLMs are not even a sliver of what a true AI would be. It's so very silly that so much credence is given to them.
- baq 3y agoEven worse if the beliefs are true! Ian Banks' Culture series takes this idea to the extreme, feels like it's getting more relevant by the day in the past week.
- ben_w 3y ago"We are close to gods, and on the far side." Well, Minds are friendly, so I'd take it.
- Hoasi 3y ago> Why do I get a feeling we are going to see an explosion of secular cults that have weird beliefs in AI and worship AGI? A tendency that would take humanity a few hundred years backward, that's such a shame. Laziness will prevail when immediacy and cargo cult tribalism are the most potent currency.
- krapp 3y ago>A tendency that would take humanity a few hundred years backward, that's such a shame. Not in this case - AI, singularitanism and transhumanism have had cultish, neo-religious elements to them for decades. All we're seeing now is the seeds that Ray Kurzewil, Rudy Rucker and others planted ages ago bearing fruit now that technology actually seems to be catching up to people's fears. I'm not claiming it is, just that it seems to be.
- bleachedsleet 3y agoThis is already happening. See Theta Noir [0] [0] https://thetanoir.com https://thetanoir.com
- Eumenes 3y agoThere's already plenty of mental illness out there so this manifestation doesn't seem too farfetched.
- suoduandao3 3y agocommon sense? You may find this interview interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tTJR9vqWB4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tTJR9vqWB4
- xgkickt 3y agoAll of them conveniently with 501(c) status.
- idiotsecant 3y agoSign me up. Its undeniable that we exist at or very near the point in time marking a phase change I'm the nature of complex thought in pur little corner of the universe. There have been many such phase changes - when we managed to capture mitochondria, when we formed complex multicellular life, when we began to construct tiered food chains, etc et. All the way up until we construct a machine capable of outthinking us. Biological humanity is a booster rocket on a spaceship ride that is the universe coming to understand itself. I feel privileged to exist at this exact moment when I get to witness the start of the next thing, but booster rockets separate and so must we. I don't think there's anything particularly mystical about that, but I suppose you could say that its spirituality-adjacent in the way that all great things are.
- macNchz 3y ago> Its undeniable that we exist at or very near the point in time marking a phase change I'm the nature of complex thought in pur little corner of the universe. I’d question whether it is “undeniable”, but I do think this sounds like the exact sort of foundational mythology necessary to establish a religion oriented around AI.
- alienicecream 3y agoWhat are you hoping will be understood? We've gone as far back as the big bang and as far down as the atom in understanding. Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells all cooperating, and no one is particularly impressed with it. It's just matter, energy and motion. Everything can be reduced to billiard balls on a table. Is there a way to understand something scientifically that is not ultimately put in those terms?
- idiotsecant 3y ago>no one is particularly impressed with it If anyone has ever said anything cynical ever I think this beats it. Biology is amazing. >What are you hoping will be understood. Understanding is like the apparent horizon. The closer you get the further away you realize it is. There will always be more to understand, we will just reach a point where our little monkey minds are incapable of holding enough 'state' to grasp for the next step. I say that as a monkey who is awfully fond of my own little monkey mind.