Some of the attempts in this comment section to tar the entire rationalist
community with the Zizian brush are ideologically motivated. The third most popular ideology in the US is the hope that
technological progress will lead to a good future. (The most popular ideology is Christianity, with Leftism in second place. Note that a single person can subscribe to more than one ideology.) In contrast, the rationalist community grew around
publications by Eliezer Yudkowsky written with the hope that they would help people
realize that AI research is dangerous [1]. Of course, if technological
progress is your ideology, then you are going to resist the idea that the most exciting and powerful technology of the
decade is dangerous.
[1] More history here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902731