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.
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.