[directorscut82]

One should also mention the creation of "God(s)" in any religion (sub)context. We are probably the only mammalian creature who delegated all his existential angst to an abstracted entity responsible for anything that it didn't make sense at the time. I think it is THE intellectual pinnacle of a brain trying to survive and process information full of null pointers without halting its programming:/)

[krapp]

I ascribe the creation of God(s) to sub-rational behavior - paredolia, superstition, emotion born of fear and ignorance. The pinnacle of intellect was realizing the universe operated by rules that could be understood rather than the capricious will of supernatural forces.

[vixen99]

If we've already reached the pinnacle I guess we've no more to achieve bar amassing a bunch more salient observations regarding how the universe ticks. The it's job done! Almost Boring.

[krapp]

I mean, this thread includes examples like agriculture and writing so I don't know why you're snarking at me specifically.

But all of modern science, including relativity (which is also mentioned somewhere) depends upon the initial insight that the natural world doesn't require supernatural explanation.

[youoy]

Nicely written! I was thinking about this the other day. What is the benefit from your point of view of procesing information full of null pointers? (I know what the benefit of not halting its programming is :P)

[directorscut82]

De-referencing null pointers is the ultimate tilt but our NNs needed a way to explore just a tiny bit of unmapped memory without halting a.k.a go crazy, surrender to fear etc, probably because planning and anticipating for the next threat/unknown is their main role. It seems that we have devised a clever way of offloading the exact point of no return of our pcregister to handling by fantastical powerful creatures. What if the next crop does not deliver, crash danger alert -> praise a god. What happens when we die -> establish a religion based on afterlife benefits etc.

At the same time and while this jump command is now installed/available it allowed us to explore alternative solutions (medicine, technology etc). Since one can always transfers his main program's control to GOD section, it feels less risky to process methodically information full of unknowns and failures (the context now is "with the help of god we/one can deliver a solution"). This particular section throughout history controlled our lower instincts, maybe even made us more empathetic to other (unknown) humans instead of always perceive them as a threat but ultimately controlled all aspects of life and when misused delivered bloodshed and misery. What a weird section! I think at some point we should become brave enough and refactor/remove it, it served a purpose but now is not required/obsolete.

[arter45]

Wouldn’t you argue that lower instincts are not well managed by modern humanity, which means religion is still necessary? :)

[satvikpendem]

This is basically the argument laid forth by Yuval Noah Harari in Sapiens.