Eschatological cults are not a new phenomenon. And this is what we have with both AI safety and e/acc. They’re different ends of the same horseshoe.
Quite frankly, I think for many followers, these beliefs are filling in a gap which would have been filled with another type of religious belief, had they been born in another era. We all want to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves; something world altering.
From where I stand, we are already in a sort of technological singularity - people born in the early 1900s now live in a world that has been completely transformed. And yet it’s still an intimately familiar world. Past results don’t guarantee future results, but I think it’s worth considering.
Quite frankly, I think for many followers, these beliefs are filling in a gap which would have been filled with another type of religious belief, had they been born in another era. We all want to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves; something world altering.
From where I stand, we are already in a sort of technological singularity - people born in the early 1900s now live in a world that has been completely transformed. And yet it’s still an intimately familiar world. Past results don’t guarantee future results, but I think it’s worth considering.