&gt; Airplanes weren&#x27;t a practical means of travel in 1910, but by 1960 it was a different story, and some people in 1910 had already realized that plane travel was coming.<p>Indeed, arguing about the potential threats of air-travel in 1910 (let alone in 1810) would have been silly. The point isn&#x27;t whether or not AI is possible (or could pose a serious threat), but whether or not discussing it as a threat given our current, near-zero, understanding of it is productive. Jaron Lanier argues that not only is it not productive, it distracts from more pressing challenges related to machine learning.<p>&gt; I am an atheist, and think most religious beliefs are irrational. However, that doesn&#x27;t mean that every belief that &quot;looks like&quot; religion (in some vague, poorly-defined way) is irrational.<p>You think <i>now</i> that religion is irrational, but when most religions were established there was little reason to believe they were. As to the &quot;vague, poorly-defined way&quot; all I can say is that religion has many definitions[1].<p>The famous anthropologist, Clifford Geertz defined it as a &quot;system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.&quot;<p>Another famous anthropologist said (again, quoting from Wikipedia) that narrowing the definition to mean the belief in a supreme deity or judgment after death or idolatry and so on, would exclude many peoples from the category of religious, and thus &quot;has the fault of identifying religion rather with particular developments than with the deeper motive which underlies them&quot;.<p>It is therefore common practice among social researchers to define religion based more on its motivation rather than specific content. If you believe in a super-human being and an afterlife and not for scientific reasons (and currently AI is not science, let alone dangerous AI), that may certainly be a good candidate for a religious or quasi-religious belief.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Religion" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Religion</a>