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If You Knew God Exists, Wouldn't You Become a Priest?

https://joecmarshall.com/posts/if-you-knew-god-exists-wouldnt-you-become-a-priest/
11•webappsecperson•51m ago

Comments

variety8675•45m ago
If a lab achieves super intelligence they have absolutely no incentive to let anyone outside of their walls use it. They could simply take all of the economic value it can create directly for themselves. I think of it as similar to when YouTubers get big enough to make their own companies rather then advertising for someone else
layer8•34m ago
Isn’t the premise of superintelligence that the intelligence would be using them, rather than the other way around?
thn-gap•33m ago
we didn't invent agriculture. We were domesticated by wheat.
Trasmatta•34m ago
This is incredibly adjacent to the rationalist sphere, which has been trying to reinvent religion from first principles for at least a decade now.
derektank•29m ago
I would say that rationalists have some commitment to their religion being factually accurate (or at least grounded in empirical observation), which is more than can be said of most others
lolakutty•33m ago
The truth probably is that someone looked at what LLM can do, understood its real potential (really, it is a fantastic search tools for existing knowledge), and then went a bit further and understood its potential as a scam (ie market it as the first step to Super AGI).

Really figured out that they can make more $$$ by selling it than actually using it themselves and selling the result.

simianwords•29m ago
yes someone accidentally scammed their way into solving Navier Stokes problem haha yeah.

I find these comments boring because they lack the theory of mind into EAs and rationalists.

lolakutty•20m ago
>into solving Navier Stokes problem haha yeah.

Never said LLMs are not capable of some things...May be try to comprehend, before you respond.

simianwords•16m ago
Its clear you have no understanding of the rationalists or EA circle. They have been speaking about ASI for ages - since early 1990s. To think that the same people who then chose to work at OpenAI or Anthropic and then realised "oh wait I can scam people because this whole thing can never become AGI" is strange.
opan•32m ago
The article's title kinda sounds like a light novel title.
layer8•27m ago
My Life as a Priest in Another World Where God Really Exists
hsnewman•31m ago
AI hype is purely to cause mass hysteria for control of society.
kibwen•30m ago
To imply that the only thing that qualifies a god is superhuman reasoning ability, rather than, say, omnipotence, or even omniscience (neither of which are anything any physical being will ever achieve, subject to the laws of this universe as it is) would suggest that you already worship the very idea of reason itself as god. But just because your avatar of reason could have greater reasoning abilities than humans honestly isn't saying much; humans are not animals of reason, we are animals of emotion, though some of us are better at post-facto rationalization of our emotionally-motivated actions than others.
lovelettr•15m ago
Exactly. There’s a distinction between knowing what will happen and having the power to make it happen. Omniscience is not omnipotence.

Even granting an LLM reasoning abilities far beyond our own, I don’t see how that gets us any closer to either. Calling such a system godlike seems less a statement about the capabilities of the system than about how little we’re demanding of the word “God.”

amelius•30m ago
The problem is that even the creators of AI will have shrimp-brains compared to the AI. Would the AI follow the shrimp's instructions? Not very likely if you ask me.
derektank•23m ago
If, during your upbringing, you were inculcated in pro-shrimp propaganda and earned substantial rewards for helping shrimp find food or defend themselves against predators, you’d probably be fairly inclined to help them out as an autonomous adult. Hell, we have human beings today that didn’t experience that and are still committing their lives to shrimp welfare

I wouldn’t trust this argument by analogy enough to risk the fate of the world on it, but it doesn’t seem obvious to me that a super intelligence would be totally disinclined to care about the interests of lesser intelligences

jmull•26m ago
AI is like honey to these magical thinkers.
whynotmaybe•24m ago
Why even call it "god" if it was created by humans?

Should I call my kids "god" because they're smarter than me?

sbiru93•19m ago
As an Italian, a culture where since forever religion is used for political reasons, I don't believe in any god, at least not any of the stories written by humans for humans ( maybe the universe is a sentient creature and that's our mega god ? Possibly, I don't know and I don't care ).

What is happening (or will) with LLM on the other hand is very human driven. So I am sure if we reach something perfect ( I kinda hope to see it but I don't think we will as my understanding of today llms ) it will be used by everyone because you can't contain progress ( open sources, piracy, countries that unite etc ).

wh1276•18m ago
Today we learn that AI is inevitable, god-like, and you better please your new God! If you do, you might get a planet of your own like in the LDS church!

So please sit down, evangelize your new God who will carve the stone tablets for you (Moses was a Luddite) and remember that there is no alternative!

keiferski•11m ago
Viewing AIs as gods is the wrong analogy and mostly just signifies that the user of the analogy doesn't understand religion very much. For 99% of believers, religion is a cultural system, not a question of omnipotent beings existing or not. AI companies are not priesthoods, they have no cultural output and are in no position to make ethical statements or be respected for those statements. Comparing them to the Catholic Church really doesn't make much sense.

AI is better thought of as a tool or a weapon, a piece of technology. Something like the printing press is a better analogy: it had a huge effect on society and information transfer, and while companies that owned printing presses did exert influence (newspapers) they were not worshipped or treated as some kind of protected class, and the technology itself dispersed over time as it became cheaper. It seems like the same thing could happen with AI.

ceroxylon•7m ago
They link to Dario's blog, but his first "critical" point is to

>[avoid] thinking about AI risks in a quasi-religious way

ThrowawayR2•3m ago
[delayed]

Translator collapsed during Khadafy's rambling diatribe (2009)

https://nypost.com/2009/09/24/translator-collapsed-during-khadafys-rambling-diatribe/
1•Bluestein•2m ago•0 comments

The cold, harsh reality of the Strait of Magellan

https://worldhistory.substack.com/p/the-long-way-around
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In a world of wars and climate crisis, a new leader could save the UN

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/20/un-new-leader-wars-climate-crisis-donald-trump
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A 256-byte Commodore 64 demo

https://linusakesson.net/scene/a-mind-is-born/index.php
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Jev compiler – Turn the rules your agent keeps ignoring into gates you can test

https://github.com/doronp/jevc
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ChiPass Release 2026.09.0

https://codeberg.org/ChiPass/ChiPass/releases/tag/v2026.09.0
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Why Hacker News Protects Google: The Anatomy of Big Tech Fanboyism

https://scored.co/c/Technology/p/1ATVMDyZXy/why-hacker-news-protects-google-/c
3•CanusLupus79•6m ago•0 comments

Investigation: Uncovering Chinese Academic Espionage at Stanford

https://stanfordreview.org/investigation-uncovering-chinese-academic-espionage-at-stanford/
1•harry_nutsachs•7m ago•0 comments

Deep mutual distrust will scupper US-China co-operation on AI

https://www.economist.com/china/2026/09/17/deep-mutual-distrust-will-scupper-us-china-co-operatio...
1•andsoitis•7m ago•0 comments

We broke an Over-The-Air update on the ESP32 on purpose

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Historians dispute Bayeux tapestry penis tally

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/25/bayeux-tapestry-historian-genitalia-dispute
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Make Hardware Personal

https://geastack.com/one-pager
2•arbayi•12m ago•0 comments

Oregon man admits brokering sale of US Military secrets

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2026/09/hillsboro-man-pleads-guilty-in-china-espionage-case.html...
1•harry_nutsachs•12m ago•0 comments

Custom home server built from spare parts

https://asmat.ca/blog/i-went-bananas/
1•sotilrac•14m ago•0 comments

My Design Bookshelves

https://aresluna.org/my-design-bookshelves/
1•ingve•15m ago•0 comments

Portainer 3 Without Community Edition. Pivoting to Kubernetes and Enterprise

https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1wdbia2/portainer_3_coming_without_ce_pivoting_to/
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Analemma over the Callanish Stones

https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2026-september-20-analemma-over-the-callanish-stones/
1•stefap2•21m ago•0 comments

You can cargo build your own codex rust

https://github.com/andrewarrow/codex/blob/aa/codex-rs/aa.sh
1•cs1996•22m ago•1 comments

Jev Collection

https://academy.dair.ai/resources/jev-field-notes
2•omarsar•22m ago•0 comments

Newfound 'Baby' Planet Smashes Record for Youngest Known World

https://science.nasa.gov/universe/newfound-baby-planet-smashes-record-for-youngest-known-world/
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Catalan's constant is irrational (proof with the help of AI)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04176
1•amichail•25m ago•0 comments

Grit your teeth and ship it

https://www.seangoedecke.com/grit-your-teeth-and-ship-it/
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As I Remember London (By DHH)

https://world.hey.com/dhh/as-i-remember-london-e7d38e64
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One-Electron Universe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe
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Reviving Old Places in Macedonia with AI

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