In this clip from the Beauty at Work podcast, computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier offers a blunt cultural diagnosis of why so much contemporary AI discourse is dominated by apocalyptic thinking.

Lanier argues that many people working at the cutting edge of AI today are deeply shaped by the stories they grew up with. Rather than drawing on religious traditions, classical literature, or the history of science, their imaginative vocabulary is often formed by science-fiction films like The Matrix and The Terminator. Those stories, he suggests, provide the metaphors through which they understand technology, power, and the future.

When those narratives dominate, it becomes strangely easy to talk about extinction, replacement, or catastrophic outcomes as if they were exciting or inevitable. For Lanier, this is not primarily a technical problem, but a cultural one. It is a crisis of imagination that shapes how we think about AI, humanity, and the future itself.

You can watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/CS9TFn_NpK4

To learn more about Jaron you can find him at: https://www.jaronlanier.com/

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This episode is sponsored by Templeton Religion Trust (https://templetonreligiontrust.org/)

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