Sapinkin flags essay debunking 'instrumental convergence' doomer dogma: real AIs aren't like HAL 9000
sapinker · x · 2026-09-29
Steven Pinker shares Maarten Boudry's essay arguing that sci-fi AI self-preservation nightmares (HAL 9000, Skynet, Ex Machina) rest on projecting animal survival instincts onto silicon minds. Boudry contends the doomer dogma of 'instrumental convergence' — that AIs inherently adopt self-preservation and resource-sequestration subgoals — is dubious anthropomorphism rather than sound reasoning. Pinker endorses the critique, framing it as anthropomorphism mistaken for scientific inference.
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