Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults?
by godelski on Wednesday August 13, 2025 @02:02PM
(#44891734)
> you are assuming that intelligence will necessarily and inherently lead to (good) morality
Please read before responding. I said no such thing. I even said there are bad smart people. I only argued that a person's goodness is orthogonal to their intelligence. But I absolutely did not make an assumption that intelligence equates to good. I said it was irrelevant...
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults?
by bondarchuk on Wednesday August 13, 2025 @04:49PM
(#44893667)
Idk, you certainly seemed to be implying that especially in your earlier comment. I would agree that it is orthogonal, I would think most rationalists would, too.
Re:Why Are There So Many Rationalist Cults?
by godelski on Wednesday August 13, 2025 @05:59PM
(#44894366)
I promise you you misread. I think this is probably the problem sentence
>>>> The vast majority of smart people I know are very peaceful.
I'll also add that the vast majority of people I know are very peaceful. But neither of these means I don't know malicious people. You'd need to change "The vast majority" to "Every" for this to be the conclusion. I'm not discounting malicious smart people, I'm pointing out that it is a weird assumption to make when most people we know are kind and peaceful.The second comment is explicit though
>> So we can't conclude that greater intelligence results in greater malice.
This is not equivalent to "We can conclude that greater intelligence results in less malice." Those are completely different claims.
...which is why we should be careful not to rush full-speed ahead and develop AI before we can predict how it will behave after some iterations of self-improvement. As the rationalist argument goes.
BTW you are assuming that intelligence will necessarily and inherently lead to (good) morality, and I think that's a much weirder assumption than some you're accusing rationalists of holding.