The Vatican-Anthropic relationship that's reshaping the AI ethics debate

(religionnews.com)

17 points | by cdrnsf 12 hours ago ago

9 comments

  • turtleyacht 11 hours ago ago

    Culture Hacks (2019) compares Eastern and Western cultures, the mode of thinking about the world and general perspectives.

    Religion, truth, and time are interpreted differently between them. Western thinking considers absolutes, right & wrong, black & white. Eastern thinking considers truth relative and time cyclical.

    Of all the books that could be scraped, wonder if any translations from other philosophies or sources could have (or had) an impact (or not) on the process.

    Will certain flavors or profiles of ethics exist, or a kind of poly-ethics?

    • merelydev 3 hours ago ago

      As it relates to religion, the West prays and the East meditates. Praying is to look outside of oneself, meditating is to look inside. This might explain the difference in source of truth.

    • mgh2 8 hours ago ago

      > Western thinking considers absolutes, right & wrong, black & white. Eastern thinking considers truth relative and time cyclical.

      Western culture is more direct and straightforward, while Eastern is the opposite. "Face saving, excuses, bs, white lies, hypocrisy, beating around the bush, etc." are all under the umbrella of lies in the West, not in the East.

      "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes" - Mark Twain

      Extrapolated resources:

      [1] https://www.bible.com/bible/105/MAT.5.37.NCV

      [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrEZwe1nbBU&t=226s

      [3] https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYePOH_ypzb/

      [4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14142060/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_...

      • rf15 8 hours ago ago

        which is funny because I learned the worst kind of "subtle lie" from the west: establishing a favorable interpretation as fact before others have the time to think about an event or circumstance critically and from multiple angles. Because a lot of people don't ask followup questions if you give them An Answer right away.

        • mgh2 8 hours ago ago

          That is just lazy thinking, exploiting a cognitive bias.

  • qsxfthnkp2322 4 hours ago ago

    Anthropic needs to turn to religion to make it back into the good graces of the pentagon. Hahaha. Hurry pass around the donation tray, Dario must need it.

  • andrewstuart 6 hours ago ago

    The idea that church - and the Catholic Church at that - has any sort of special relationship to ethics is fucking weird.

    It’s such a weird idea it feels like pure theater.

    In fact it is such a strange concept that it indicates that Anthropic has not the slightest genuine internal concept of what ethics is really about.

    “We need ethics, let’s partner with the church” is cartoonish in its foolishness.

    • applicative an hour ago ago

      If you advance any ethical propositions at all it will be very easy to prove that they are mediated by Christian history in its orthodox forms. This holds even of ethics under Islam which is latently derived from orthodox Christianity in its origin matrix. It cannot be escaped without spectacular 'antimoral' radicalism, as Nietzsche spent his life proving in a hundred ways. It is different in the civilizations of the 'dharmic traditions', as people sometimes frame the distinction.

      An easy way of seeing part way into this is to note that the ethical complaints we make against the church as institution are all founded on principles explicitly taught by the same church.

    • snayan 5 hours ago ago

      Did you read the encyclical? It's quite the grounded take on AI and the ethics around it.