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anigbrowl01/21/20252 repliesview on HN

Douglas Adams, right again:

The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself, video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself; Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe.

The notion that anyone would hold themselves out as a religious authority and then turn a metaphorical machine handle to stamp out their religious arguments is laughable to me. If you are motivated to go around telling other people how they should think about such topics you can at least make the effort (or seek the divine inspiration) to write the material yourself. Using an LLM seems like cargo-cultism, and for followers of Abrahamic religions it's arguably idolatrous.


Replies

mystified501601/22/2025

You know what, LLM beleif does look an awful like early idolotry in Abrahamic tradition. I seem to remember at least one story of a speaking idol.

bmicraft01/22/2025

Just like religions that emphasize "spreading the word" have largely won out over others that didn't, I wonder if this will similarly pan out for religions that incorporate LLMs in that process.

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