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Comment by Tim_O'Brien on Above-Average AI Scientists · 2008-09-28T16:15:30.000Z · LW · GW

shrug so he's a creationist, who cares? As long as he isn't a creationist who teach evolutionary biology I'm less than concerned with what role playing games or religions one engages in during off hours. Is it silly? Entirely so. But, I think we have too much of a hang-up over the intersection of religion and science. For a few it is a trouble-some mixture indeed, but for many it is harmless cultural "play". Stating that you believe in "Creationism because the Bible says so", is only marginally more insane than saying, "I believe free market capitalism exists". If you analyzed the belief system of any living human, you'd run up against many discontinuities.

You mixed the whole "AGI researcher is creationist, is that Ok?" with the thread about relative ability in a field such as AGI. Science is firmly grounded in the idea of the individual generating science. Ideas, awards, foundations are all geared toward recognizing the individual at the expense of recognizing that science is very much a collective effort. Yes, there may be many "ordinary programmers" who show up on some AGI list with naive notions about the field, but give them a few years and a small percentage of them may become the technologists that help others like yourself toward an elegant solution.

Don't annoy the drooling masses, you may need them down the road. Science is not an individual art.