<story><title>AI’s big rift is like a religious schism</title><url>https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-singularity-is-nigh-republished</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>theragra</author><text>People who are concerned about global warming or nuclear weapons are also in cults?</text></item><item><author>skepticATX</author><text>Eschatological cults are not a new phenomenon. And this is what we have with both AI safety and e&amp;#x2F;acc. They’re different ends of the same horseshoe.&lt;p&gt;Quite frankly, I think for many followers, these beliefs are filling in a gap which would have been filled with another type of religious belief, had they been born in another era. We all want to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves; something world altering.&lt;p&gt;From where I stand, we are already in a sort of technological singularity - people born in the early 1900s now live in a world that has been completely transformed. And yet it’s still an intimately familiar world. Past results don’t guarantee future results, but I think it’s worth considering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wishfish</author><text>Not at all. But I think one&amp;#x27;s feelings on global warming &amp;amp; nukes can be influenced by previous exposure to eschatology. I was raised in American evangelicalism which puts a heavy emphasis on the end of the world stuff. I left the church behind long ago. But the heavy diet of Revelations, etc. has left me with a nihilism I can&amp;#x27;t shake. That whatever humanity does is doomed to fail.&lt;p&gt;Of course, that isn&amp;#x27;t necessarily true. I know there&amp;#x27;s always a chance we somehow muddle through. Even a chance that we one day fix things. But, emotionally, I can&amp;#x27;t shake that feeling of inevitable apocalypse.&lt;p&gt;Weirdly enough, I feel completely neutral on AI. No doomerism on that subject. Maybe that comes from being old enough to not worry how it&amp;#x27;s going to shake out.</text></comment>
<story><title>AI’s big rift is like a religious schism</title><url>https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-singularity-is-nigh-republished</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>theragra</author><text>People who are concerned about global warming or nuclear weapons are also in cults?</text></item><item><author>skepticATX</author><text>Eschatological cults are not a new phenomenon. And this is what we have with both AI safety and e&amp;#x2F;acc. They’re different ends of the same horseshoe.&lt;p&gt;Quite frankly, I think for many followers, these beliefs are filling in a gap which would have been filled with another type of religious belief, had they been born in another era. We all want to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves; something world altering.&lt;p&gt;From where I stand, we are already in a sort of technological singularity - people born in the early 1900s now live in a world that has been completely transformed. And yet it’s still an intimately familiar world. Past results don’t guarantee future results, but I think it’s worth considering.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>madrox</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think we&amp;#x27;re dealing with &amp;quot;concerned&amp;quot; citizens in this thread, but with people who presuppose the end result with religious certainty.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s ok to be concerned about the direction AI will take society, but trying to project any change (including global warming or nuclear weapons) too far into the future will put you at extremes. We&amp;#x27;ve seen this over and over throughout history. So far, we&amp;#x27;re still here. That isn&amp;#x27;t because we weren&amp;#x27;t concerned, but because we dealt with the problems in front of us a day at a time.</text></comment>