Hmm, do you have close friends who grew up in non-Abrahamic cultures? I feel like a lot of the stuff in this post seems to presume, though does not state outright, that something like religion (or even a very specific form of religion??) is approximately a human universal. This feels very alien/surprising compared to my upbringing (which is not particularly atheist by Chinese standards, like my mom literally converted to Christianity), so I’m wondering if one of us is just confused here.
(Looping back here because I thought the post never made sense to me but it did to a lot of people. At first I attributed it to just pro- vs anti- LT tribalism, but wanted to advance the alternative hypothesis that we just have different expectations for the appeal of religiosity or how probable different ideas* map to Christianity in particular).
*I also thought the mapping of “simulation hypothesis → Christianity” that seems popular in some circles recently to be kind of silly pattern-matching.
To answer your question directly: yes, but I did not when I was young. I’m pretty steeped in Abrahamic cultural influences. That said, I do not think the post presumes anything about universal religious experiences or anything like that.
However, I’d probably express these ideas a little bit differently if I had to do it again now. Mainly, I’d try harder to separate two ideas. While I’m as convinced as ever that “messianic AI”-type claims are very likely wrong, I think the fact that lots of people make claims of that form may just show that they’re from cultures that are Abrahamic or otherwise strongly influenced by that thinking and so when they grasp for ways to express their hopes and fears around AI they latch onto that. So to the extent that people are offering those kinds of claims about AI, I remain very skeptical of those specific claims. However, I do not think that one should jump from that to complacency around AI. Hopefully that helps to clear things up.
Hmm, do you have close friends who grew up in non-Abrahamic cultures? I feel like a lot of the stuff in this post seems to presume, though does not state outright, that something like religion (or even a very specific form of religion??) is approximately a human universal. This feels very alien/surprising compared to my upbringing (which is not particularly atheist by Chinese standards, like my mom literally converted to Christianity), so I’m wondering if one of us is just confused here.
(Looping back here because I thought the post never made sense to me but it did to a lot of people. At first I attributed it to just pro- vs anti- LT tribalism, but wanted to advance the alternative hypothesis that we just have different expectations for the appeal of religiosity or how probable different ideas* map to Christianity in particular).
*I also thought the mapping of “simulation hypothesis → Christianity” that seems popular in some circles recently to be kind of silly pattern-matching.
To answer your question directly: yes, but I did not when I was young. I’m pretty steeped in Abrahamic cultural influences. That said, I do not think the post presumes anything about universal religious experiences or anything like that.
However, I’d probably express these ideas a little bit differently if I had to do it again now. Mainly, I’d try harder to separate two ideas. While I’m as convinced as ever that “messianic AI”-type claims are very likely wrong, I think the fact that lots of people make claims of that form may just show that they’re from cultures that are Abrahamic or otherwise strongly influenced by that thinking and so when they grasp for ways to express their hopes and fears around AI they latch onto that. So to the extent that people are offering those kinds of claims about AI, I remain very skeptical of those specific claims. However, I do not think that one should jump from that to complacency around AI. Hopefully that helps to clear things up.