I had to do a double take on the opening sentence and then it only got crazier We know that EAs and rationalists have always had boundary-pushing beliefs that tested the Overton window, and Cami Clark didn't do anything illegal (to our knowledge) so maybe we should lessen judgement But I was reminded of the risks of new-age religious movements today by a religious friend who recently left government and wants to join OpenAI to beat Anthropic Anthropic does believe in a religion, and their followers are willing to sacrifice for this cult. It's actually core to their evaluation of hires whether they are willing to "do the right thing at personal cost" (you hear the employees repeat this line verbatim frequently, which is always cultish) And though the EA cult is one I respect in many ways due to their intense passion for doing good (just like early Communists) the risk is that fanatically good intentions can cause widespread destruction (like later Communists) Orthodox religions are flawed but they have stood the test of time for a reason. New religions are unproven and volatile, and when combined with apocalyptic technology like AI, could wreak havoc. It's ironic that some of the "trad" people in AI are joining the OpenAI camp under the gay twink founder to combat the Antichrist of Dario, the straight guy who collabs with the Vatican