from Hacker News

Tech is changing- where are we going?

by snow_mac on 8/5/24, 10:31 PM with 1 comments

• by ggm on 8/5/24, 11:39 PM

  I think it's a bit of a stretch to get from tech to religion. There's a lot of "you do you" in the response I'm giving here, but I do appreciate this has been a thing for some time, the assumption I made in times past that tech == atheism is demonstrably false. I do wonder why? Isn't observable emergent behaviour in complex systems strong evidence of the absence of intelligent design? (btw, emergent behaviour is not an argument for AGI but I digress)

  But I would argue it takes some mental gymnastics to get from theism in general to specifically the monotheism of christianity.

  Rod Burstall, who was a significant player in the Edinburgh University AI scene in the 60s and 70s converted to Buddhism. I think that's possibly the stronger trend here. I'd welcome comment from the South Asian contingent which is now everywhere.

  Probably, this is a local event in tech bound up in fear of the unknown, lack of experience of the past tech boom-bust cycles, the electoral cycle, the social media wierdness about truth, cookers online. I don't personally see a strong nexus in tech to religious expression.

  Pentecostalists online might disagree.

  Lastly, which is a little sad because I don't like to end on a sour note, that was incoherently badly written. If you feel drawn to exegesis, get somebody to crit your work.