Variations on this theme have certainly come up. This site says it’s about rationality, yet the local consensus is weird or deviant, what if that’s being produced by the very same irrationality mechanisms that you all write about? Lots of people have posed that question.
With respect to your comparison: The idea that this will be the century of artificial intelligence is commonplace now. Silicon Valley has not quite become Singularity Valley, but it is extremely common for people who work in the computer industry, even very senior ones, to now anticipate a future that is radically science-fictional in character. It would only be a small number of your “very smart and accomplished people” who even have a considered opinion, pro or con, on Eliezer’s specific philosophy, but I don’t think his statement that you quote is especially unusual or anomalous for its time.
You could say something similar about the 9-11 Truthers too—that they are part of the zeitgeist—though in locating their social support base, you’ll find it’s identifiably different to the culture in which singularity ideas are most potent. The generalization is far from universal, but I would say that singularity believers tend to be people from technical or scientific subcultures who feel personally empowered by the rise of technology, whereas 9-11 conspiracy believers are politically and socially minded and feel disempowered by the state of the world.
Variations on this theme have certainly come up. This site says it’s about rationality, yet the local consensus is weird or deviant, what if that’s being produced by the very same irrationality mechanisms that you all write about? Lots of people have posed that question.
With respect to your comparison: The idea that this will be the century of artificial intelligence is commonplace now. Silicon Valley has not quite become Singularity Valley, but it is extremely common for people who work in the computer industry, even very senior ones, to now anticipate a future that is radically science-fictional in character. It would only be a small number of your “very smart and accomplished people” who even have a considered opinion, pro or con, on Eliezer’s specific philosophy, but I don’t think his statement that you quote is especially unusual or anomalous for its time.
You could say something similar about the 9-11 Truthers too—that they are part of the zeitgeist—though in locating their social support base, you’ll find it’s identifiably different to the culture in which singularity ideas are most potent. The generalization is far from universal, but I would say that singularity believers tend to be people from technical or scientific subcultures who feel personally empowered by the rise of technology, whereas 9-11 conspiracy believers are politically and socially minded and feel disempowered by the state of the world.