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timtyler comments on People who want to save the world - Less Wrong
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I think this sort of thing is quite common:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Age
Rescuing things is widely regarded as being good - and the whole world acts as a superstimulus.
Comparing a disliked belief to a religious one has all the universal applicability of repeating what they say in a high - pitched tone of voice.
I think ciphergoth is right in that argument-by-reference-class should be avoided if possible.
I think that timtyler is onto something with the superstimulus thing - there are mundane, reductionist reasons why I might have ended up with the motivations that I do. I had pictured it more as "the result of a peculiar mix of social conditioning and rationalist memes". In evolutionary terms it definitely feels like a "mistake", which is why I wouldn't expect all that many people to be motivated the same way I am (maybe 0.1% of people, and I'm not even sure what to do with those people if they're hostile to rationalist ideas).
But even if I knew the exact cause of my motivations, I wouldn't want to change them.
In terms of DNA-genes, yes. However, the SAVE THE WORLD meme gets quite a good deal out of it. Budding world-savers often prosletyse - resulting in more brains hijacked by the meme. It seems to be a case of meme-evoution outstripping the defenses of the natural memetic immune system.
I think religions have by far the most extensive set of prior claims relating to trying to save large numbers of people - or the world. Comparisons seem inevitable.
In the past, most with such beliefs have been delusional - suffering from hubris - and have subsequently been proclaimed false messiahs. This raises the issue of how best to avoid that fate.