Considering Richard Dawkins has recently succumbed to the same delusion it is a reminder that no matter how intelligent someone may otherwise be, we are all human and have certain tendencies and blind spots; anthropomorphizing non-entities being one of those.
replyRichard Dawkins is 85 to be fair, just like Bernie Sanders is 84 when he made similar comments.
replyThe other guy worked on Google's AI safety team where one would expect he'd have a basic grasp of how the technology works before making outlandish claims.
One phenomenon that spooks me is when intelligent people believe in idiotic things.
replyIt makes me wonder if there's a wrong turn in the road that I too might fall in the same pit.
Vigilance is warranted, I think.
replyI can't find it right now, but something came up a few years ago (probably on HN) about highly intelligent people being more adept at making up arguments to rationalize beliefs and actions that they had taken for other reasons entirely.
Sort of makes sense that wielding a more complex mind would offer more complex ways to go wrong, doesn't it?