Comment by biophysboy
4 days ago
Maybe I was too vague. My argument is that cults need a secret. The secret of the rationalist community is "nobody is rational except for us". Then the rituals would be endless probability/math/logic arguments about sci-fi futures.
I think the promise of secret knowledge is important, but I think cults also need a second thing: "That thing you fear? You're right to fear it, and only we can protect you from it. If you don't do what we say, it's going to be so much worse than it is now, but if you do, everything will be good and perfect."
In the rationalist cults, you typically have the fear of death and non-existence, coupled with the promise of AGI, the Singularity and immortality, weighed against the AI Apocalypse.
I guess I'd say protection promises like this are a form of "secret knowledge". At the same time, so many cults have this protection racket so you might be on to something