I think there is plausibly a relationship between awe and gullibility. Awe relaxes priors to let in novel info, resulting in occasional bad ideas getting in. This may explain a lot of spirituality. May also explain awe of AI leading to dubious utopian or apocalyptic visions.

@DavidPinsof It could also be that very large, powerful things that change fast globally are both awe inspiring and potentially utopian/apocalyptic.

@DavidPinsof Along with good ideas I would think. Would you posit any asymmetry?

@DavidPinsof Seems right to me, I think awe and related feelings often have negative epistemic effects. A bit related: gwern.net/doc/psychology…

@DavidPinsof Yeah, we suggested the same mechanism in the context of psychedelic-induced mystical experiences x.com/Lucidly_Elias/…

@DavidPinsof @robsica @AthenaAktipis the Awepocalypse

@DavidPinsof I'm guessing Joe Henrich would have opinions on this. Childhood naive copying extended too long.

@DavidPinsof Hence cathedrals, which would have been incomprehensibly vast and awe-inspiring to the medieval mind