Roko’s Basilisk or Pascal’s? Thinking of Singularity Thought Experiments as Implicit Religion

• DOI: 10.1558/imre.35900
• Publication Date: 2018-05-23T02:59:52Z
• Authors: Beth Singler
• Keywords: Opposition (politics); Atheism; Thought experiment; Schema (genetic algorithms)

In 2010 a thought experiment speculating on the motivations and aims of potential superintelligent Artificial Intelligence, sometimes known as ‘Singularity’, caused uproar anxiety forum board where it was initially posted. This paper considers that experiment’s debt to older forms religious argument, reactions from among community, how expectations about Singularity being with agency can be considered an example implicit religion. is significant appeared in field research, AI, by many secular due its technological focus. The communities under discussion also explicitly express their aim ‘perfecting’ human rationality, place ability opposition ‘religion’ derided object ‘Goddists’ general. tension between overt atheism communities’ return tropes narratives relevant for wider study religion contemporary era.