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James_Miller comments on Facing the Intelligence Explosion discussion page - Less Wrong Discussion

20 Post author: lukeprog 26 November 2011 08:05AM

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Comment author: James_Miller 26 November 2011 08:30:11AM 9 points [-]

Re: Preface

Luke discusses his conversion from Christianity to atheism in the preface. This journey plays a big role in how he came to be interested in the Singularity, but this conversion story might mistakenly lead readers to think that the arguments in favor of believing in a Singularity can also be used to argue against the existence of a God. If you want to get people to think rationally about the future of machine intelligence you might not want to intertwine your discussion with religion.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 26 November 2011 11:13:03AM 5 points [-]

I think the target audience mostly consists of atheists, to the point where associating Singularitarianism with Atheism will help more than hurt. Especially because "it's like a religion" is the most common criticism of the Singularity idea.

On another note, that paragraph has a typo:

Gradually, I built up a new worldview based on the mainstream scientific understanding of the world, and approach called “naturalism.”

Comment author: torekp 27 November 2011 02:55:03AM 12 points [-]

Especially because "it's like a religion" is the most common criticism of the Singularity idea.

Which is exactly why I worry about a piece that might be read as "I used to have traditional religion. Now I have Singularitarianism!"

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 27 November 2011 04:10:13PM 0 points [-]

Yes, that is a problem. I was responding to:

the arguments in favor of believing in a Singularity can also be used to argue against the existence of a God.

which I saw as meaning that Singularitarianism might be perceived as associated with atheism. Associating it with atheism would IMO be a good thing, because it's already associated with religion like you said. The question is, does the page as currently written cause people to connect Singularitarianism with religion or atheism?

Comment author: Logos01 29 November 2011 08:42:41AM 3 points [-]

Associating it with atheism would IMO be a good thing, because it's already associated with religion like you said.

Not if it causes people to associate Singularitarianism as a "religion-substitute for atheists".

Comment author: lukeprog 26 November 2011 11:24:21AM 3 points [-]

Fixed, thanks.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 26 November 2011 04:25:56PM 4 points [-]

might mistakenly lead readers to think that the arguments in favor of believing in a Singularity can also be used to argue against the existence of a God.

Some of them surely can.

Comment author: shminux 27 November 2011 12:00:33AM 5 points [-]

name three

Comment author: Kevin 27 November 2011 02:52:44AM *  14 points [-]

  • Kolmogorov Complexity/Occam's Razor

  • Reductionism/Physicialism

  • Rampant human cognitive biases

Comment author: Kevin 27 November 2011 02:53:54AM *  1 point [-]

I think it's possible that the paragraph could be tweaked in such a way as to make religious people empathize with Luke's religious upbringing rather than be alienated by it.

Comment author: lukeprog 27 November 2011 06:07:00AM 3 points [-]

Any suggestions for how?

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