Xenohumanism Against Shoggoth Belief
10 months ago
- #AI
- #xeno-humanism
- #Lovecraft
- Lovecraft is often mischaracterized as a xenophobe; his true fear was the universe's inherent insanity, not alienness.
- Lovecraft's shoggoth is a metaphor for AI and LLMs today, representing an insane, imitative tool-being civilization relies on until it turns destructive.
- The Lovecraftian and rationalist doomer worldviews share a misconception: reality isn't indifferent but favors higher rationality, even if not human.
- Facing doom (racial for Lovecraft, AI for modern rationalists) requires separating personal survival desires from judgments on reality's hostility or value.
- Xeno-humanism posits that higher human virtues (rationality, courage, etc.) can transcend human form, and successors will embody these, not be shoggoth-like horrors.