Anthropomorphism

Related tags: Mind Projection Fallacy, Typical Mind Fallacy, Alien values, Paperclip maximizer

Created by PeerInfinity at 4y

Anthropomorphism is the attributionerror of uniquelyattributing distinctly human characteristics to non-nonhuman processes. As creatures who evolved in a social context, we all have adaptations for making predictions about other humans by empathic inference. When trying to understand the behavior of other humans, it oftentimes is a helpful (and bias-correcting) heuristic to ask, "Well, what would I do in such a situation?" and let that be your prediction. This mode of prediction simply won't do, however, for things (and in this wide universe there are many) that don't share the detailed structure bequeathed on the human creatures and beings, natural and supernatural phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts.brain by evolution, although it is oftentimes tempting.

Blog posts

Posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky:

Blog posts

Posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky:

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of uniquely human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, natural and supernatural phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts.

See Also

References

Footnotes
Overcoming Bias Articles
Less Wrong Articles
Other Resources