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Why are there so many rationalist cults?

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Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#21

Post by AIPedant »

I think I found the problem!

  The rationalist community was drawn together by AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky’s blog post series The Sequences, a set of essays about how to think more rationally
I actually don't mind Yudkowski as an individual - I think he is almost always wrong and undeservedly arrogant, but mostly sincere. Yet treating him as an AI researcher and serious philosopher (as opposed to a sci-fi essayist and self-help writer) is the kind of slippery foundation that less scrupulous people can build cults from. (See also Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and related trends - often it is just a bit of spiritual goofiness as with David Lynch, sometimes you get a Charles Manson.)

Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#24

Post by saasapologist »

I think we've strayed too far from the Aristotelian dynamics of the self.

Outside of sexuality and the proclivities of their leaders, emphasis on physical domination of the self is lacking. The brain runs wild, the spirit remains aimless.

In the Bay, the difference between the somewhat well-adjusted "rationalists" and those very much "in the mush" is whether or not someone tells you they're in SF or "on the Berkeley side of things"

Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#25

Post by SirFatty »

mlinhares wrote: post #4

> One is Black Lotus, a Burning Man camp led by alleged rapist Brent Dill, which developed a metaphysical system based on the tabletop roleplaying game Mage the Ascension. What the actual f. This is such an insane thing to read and understand what it means that i might need to go and sit in silence for the rest of the day. How did we get to this place with people going completely nuts like this?

Came to ask a similar question, but also has it always been like this? The difference is now these people/groups on the fringe had no visibility before the internet?

It's nuts.

Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#28

Post by wavefunction »

mlinhares wrote: post #16
TimorousBestie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mage: The Ascension is basically a delusions of grandeur simulator, so I can see how an already unstable personality might get attached to it and become more unstable.

I don't know, i'd understand something like Wraith (which I did see people developing issues, the shadow mechanic is such a terrible thing) but Mage is so, like, straightforward? Use your mind to control reality, reality fights back with paradox, its cool for a teenager but you read a bit more fantasy and you'll definitely find cooler stuff. But i guess for you to join a cult your mind must stay a teen mind forever.

How many adults actually abandon juvenalia as they age? Not the majority in my observation, and it's not always a bad thing when it's only applied to subjects like pop culture. Applied juvenalia in response to serious subjects is a more serious issue.

Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#29

Post by polytely »

AIPedant wrote: post #21

I think I found the problem! The rationalist community was drawn together by AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky’s blog post series The Sequences, a set of essays about how to think more rationally I actually don't mind Yudkowski as an individual - I think he is almost always wrong and undeservedly arrogant, but mostly sincere. Yet treating him as an AI researcher and serious philosopher (as opposed to a sci-fi essayist…

Don't forget the biggest scifi guy turned cult leader of all L. Ron Hubbard

Re: Why are there so many rationalist cults?

#30

Post by johnisgood »

noqc wrote: post #15

Perhaps I will get downvoted to death again for saying so, but the obvious answer is because the name "rationalist" is structurally indistinguishable from the name "scientology" or "the illuminati". You attract people who are desperate for an authority to appeal to, but for whatever reason are no longer affiliated with the church of their youth. Even a rationalist movement which held nothing as dogma would attract pe…

I do not see any reasons for you to get down-voted.

I agree that the term "rationalist" would appeal to many people, and the obvious need to belong to a group plays a huge role.

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