Comment by ysofunny

because the sacred simplicity problem, yet another label I had to coin due to necessity

for example, lambda calculus, it's too simple. to the point that it's real power is immediately unbelievable.

the simplest 'solution', is to make it "sacred", to infuse an aura of mystery and ineffability around the ideas. that way people will give it the proper respect proportional to the mathematical elegance without necessarily having to really grasp the details.

I'm reflecting on how, for example, lambda calculus is really easy to learn to do by rote. but this does not help in truly grasping the significance that even LLM can be computed by (an inhuman) amount of symbol substitutions on paper. and how it is easy to trivialize what this really entails (fleshing out all the entailment is difficult; it's easier to act as if they have been fleshed out and mimic the awe)

therefore, rationalist cults are the legacy, the latest leaf in the long succession of the simplest solution to the simplicity of the truly sacred mathematical ideas with which we can "know" (and nod to each other who also "know") what numbers fucking mean