![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
RationalWiki strikes again
Sep. 29th, 2026 03:01 pmSex, AI, and the Apocalypse
https://www.iankduncan.com/personal/2026-09-16-sex-ai-and-the-apocalypse
What the movement offers that person [a boy constantly told that he was smarter than everyone else] is belonging paired with steady reinforcement and affirmation. A peer group of similarly gifted individuals. A philosophy and dialect that finally renders the social world legible.
It also contains a trap – a community organized around overcoming human irrationality starts to treat membership as evidence that its members have overcome it. Being a rationalist transforms into a credential for superior judgment, and superior judgment is the community’s principal social currency.
This is about the stupid "AI is going to kill everyone" bullshit (this bullshit here) that flared up again earlier this month. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the clowns who came up with Roko's basilisk are behind all of this.
About fifteen years ago I had a friend who got really into Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and almost dropped out of school because she spent all day and night arguing with people on the LessWrong forums about Ayn Rand. My take then was that these people can't in fact be reasoned with, because they're clearly a cult. My take now, after reading this (very long) article, is that they're still a cult. I guess the difference is that now they're a cult with a lot of money and political influence. Fantastic. What a world we live in.
https://www.iankduncan.com/personal/2026-09-16-sex-ai-and-the-apocalypse
What the movement offers that person [a boy constantly told that he was smarter than everyone else] is belonging paired with steady reinforcement and affirmation. A peer group of similarly gifted individuals. A philosophy and dialect that finally renders the social world legible.
It also contains a trap – a community organized around overcoming human irrationality starts to treat membership as evidence that its members have overcome it. Being a rationalist transforms into a credential for superior judgment, and superior judgment is the community’s principal social currency.
This is about the stupid "AI is going to kill everyone" bullshit (this bullshit here) that flared up again earlier this month. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the clowns who came up with Roko's basilisk are behind all of this.
About fifteen years ago I had a friend who got really into Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and almost dropped out of school because she spent all day and night arguing with people on the LessWrong forums about Ayn Rand. My take then was that these people can't in fact be reasoned with, because they're clearly a cult. My take now, after reading this (very long) article, is that they're still a cult. I guess the difference is that now they're a cult with a lot of money and political influence. Fantastic. What a world we live in.
