Comment on >meme arrows
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks agoSomeone rewrote the first Harry Potter book (I’m not kidding) to be about Harry using magic to do essentially eugenics, Sam took it seriously.
From that fanfic, the Rationalist / Effective Altruism people believe that as more people exist in the future than in the present, making an AI singularity that would behave as a God is more important than, e.g. curing cancer, or providing clean drinking water.
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
All correct.
The only other things to add is that “Effective Altruism m” started as asking the question “what charity or charitable causes should you donate money to for the greatest positive effect in the world?” and because lonely terminally online people in the tech industry got hyperfixated on the answer evolved from “mosquito nets and access to drinking water” to that belief outlined in the previous comment.
The other thing is “timeless-decisions” which is where you should consider the far future impact of EVERY decision you make because all these little day-to-day decisions (what to eat, how to dress, your hobbies, how much you sleep, etc.) will have a “butterfly effect” on the lives of future people and whether the super AI that eventually comes will judge you to be a good person to be rewarded or a bad person to be punished.
It’s basically Calvinism for Tech-bros where God is an AI.
Behind The Bastards has done a four-part podcast on an offshoot of the Rationalists called the Zizians who were recently directly involved in that stabbing and shootout with the border patrol agent in Canada.
Also, a lot of Tech-Bros are into Rationalism like Musk, Zucc, Theil, and Sergey Brin. Basically, everyone who was at Trump’s inauguration thinks that his appalling actions justify the ends because it gives them the money to make the god AI to ensure they survive the impending judgement day and collapse of civilization.