Hacker News Reader

Comment by semiquaver | Hacker News Reader

  > That uncanny valley is there for a reason: to protect us from inferring agency

You’re committing a much older but related sin here: assigning agency and motivation to evolutionary processes. The uncanny valley is the product of evolution and thus by definition it has no “purpose”

View on HN

I reject the premise that the universe, the earth, and human existence is without purpose. It's one premise among several, and not one I subscribe to.

At least 80% of people agree with me, so I'm not holding to a fringe idea.

Well yes because just like your earlier point, we can't help but anthropomorphise the world around us.

Just like we see a person in an LLM, it's easy to assume that because we create things with a purpose, that the world around us also has to be that way. But it's just as wrong and arguably far more dangerous.

Do Hindus and Buddhists generally agree there is a purpose? Perhaps too escape suffering and reincarnation? Sounds more like a western theistic view of existence. Like the deity has a plan for everyone's life kind of thing.

I didn’t say any such thing like the universe has no purpose. Merely that in a scientific sense evolution has no motivation. It is an emergent phenomenon which tends to maximize fitness to reproduce and cannot be said to do anything for a reason. Saying otherwise is just anti-science.

>At least 80% of people agree with me, so I'm not holding to a fringe idea.

Appeal to majority much?

It's also a real weak confederation he's forming.

The "we the theists (or I guess non-nihilists?) all agree that..." falls apart once you start finishing the thought because they don't agree on much outside of negative partisanship towards certain outgroups before splintering back into fighting about dogma. Buddhists and Baptists both think life has meaning, and that's a statement with low utility.

Is it even true? I assume he’s referring to religion but I thought the irreligious population of the planet had broken 20% between China already and the West becoming increasingly agnostic/athiestic.

Not intended as anything more than "I'm not a crank to say that, unless you think most people (now and in history) are cranks"

> is the product of evolution and thus by definition it has no “purpose”

But as most things that appeared in evolution, it perhaps helped at least some individuals until sexual maturity and successful procreation.

Agreed. Thats far off from what parent said, which is what the “purpose” of the uncanny valley is.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com