Out of curiosity, what are your current thoughts on the arguments you’ve laid out here?
Strong enough to justify the existence of an organisation like SIAI. Everything else is a matter of expected utility calculations. Which I am not able to handle. Not given my current education and not given my psyche.
I know how what I am saying is incredible repugnant to some people here. I see no flaws. But I can’t help but flinch away from taking all those ideas seriously. Although I am currently trying hard. I suppose the post above is a baby-step.
This video pretty much is the window to my soul. You see how something can be completely rational yet feel ridiculous?
Less Wrong opens up the terrifying vistas of reality that I tried to flee from since a young age.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
-- The Call of Cthulhu
I felt compelled to try and see if I can make it all vanish.
I think I understand how you feel. Here is what I propose, for people who find these vistas of reality terrifying, and who may feel a need to approach them from a more “spiritual” (for lack of a better word) perspective: a true Singularity cult. By that I mean, no more pretending that you are a mere rationalist, coolly calculating the probabilities of heaven and hell, but rather to embrace the quasi-religious nature of this subject matter in all its glory. I have a pretty clear vision of such a cult, its ideology, activities and structure, and would like to know if anyone here is interested in such a thing. What I have in mind would be rather extreme and terrifying to the profane, and hence is better discussed in a more cult-like environment. For example, from the point of view of the “Cult of Omega”, the extinction of humanity is an all but inevitable and desirable outcome, as we march ineluctably toward the Singularity. I believe that if it was done well, such a cult could become the nexus of a powerful new religion which could totally remake the world.
I have a pretty clear vision of such a cult, its ideology, activities and structure, and would like to know if anyone here is interested in such a thing.
Sure. I’m interested in all end-of-the-world cults. The more virulent their memes the better.
For example, from the point of view of the “Cult of Omega”, the extinction of humanity is an all but inevitable and desirable outcome, as we march ineluctably toward the Singularity.
A cult with no respect for history? Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
As far as history goes, there are some chapters that might be worth repeating. For example, what possessed the ancient Egyptians, suddenly and out of the stone age, to build huge monuments of great precision which still awe us after 4.5 thousand years? Some crazy pharaohnic cult made that possible, and even though it seems totally irrational, I’m glad they did it! So maybe this is what we need today: a cult of the Machine which gives our technology an ideology, and even a religion. Otherwise it all seems rather pointless, doesn’t it?
Please don’t be too put off by my web site by the way—I was in a comic book supervillain phase when I created it which I’m finally getting over. Nor am I here to troll LessWrong; I think what has been created here is brilliant, and though it’s often accused of being cultish, maybe the real problem is that it isn’t cultish enough!
Strong enough to justify the existence of an organisation like SIAI. Everything else is a matter of expected utility calculations. Which I am not able to handle. Not given my current education and not given my psyche.
I know how what I am saying is incredible repugnant to some people here. I see no flaws. But I can’t help but flinch away from taking all those ideas seriously. Although I am currently trying hard. I suppose the post above is a baby-step.
This video pretty much is the window to my soul. You see how something can be completely rational yet feel ridiculous?
Less Wrong opens up the terrifying vistas of reality that I tried to flee from since a young age.
-- The Call of Cthulhu
I felt compelled to try and see if I can make it all vanish.
I think I understand how you feel. Here is what I propose, for people who find these vistas of reality terrifying, and who may feel a need to approach them from a more “spiritual” (for lack of a better word) perspective: a true Singularity cult. By that I mean, no more pretending that you are a mere rationalist, coolly calculating the probabilities of heaven and hell, but rather to embrace the quasi-religious nature of this subject matter in all its glory. I have a pretty clear vision of such a cult, its ideology, activities and structure, and would like to know if anyone here is interested in such a thing. What I have in mind would be rather extreme and terrifying to the profane, and hence is better discussed in a more cult-like environment. For example, from the point of view of the “Cult of Omega”, the extinction of humanity is an all but inevitable and desirable outcome, as we march ineluctably toward the Singularity. I believe that if it was done well, such a cult could become the nexus of a powerful new religion which could totally remake the world.
Sure. I’m interested in all end-of-the-world cults. The more virulent their memes the better.
A cult with no respect for history? Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Excellent! Perhaps you can be BetaOmega ;)
As far as history goes, there are some chapters that might be worth repeating. For example, what possessed the ancient Egyptians, suddenly and out of the stone age, to build huge monuments of great precision which still awe us after 4.5 thousand years? Some crazy pharaohnic cult made that possible, and even though it seems totally irrational, I’m glad they did it! So maybe this is what we need today: a cult of the Machine which gives our technology an ideology, and even a religion. Otherwise it all seems rather pointless, doesn’t it?
Please don’t be too put off by my web site by the way—I was in a comic book supervillain phase when I created it which I’m finally getting over. Nor am I here to troll LessWrong; I think what has been created here is brilliant, and though it’s often accused of being cultish, maybe the real problem is that it isn’t cultish enough!