Non-instrumental belief is largely founded on singularity
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 32, No. 6, pg. 511-512, 2009.
George Ainslie
The radical evolutionary step that divides
human decision-making from that of nonhumans is the ability to excite
the reward process for its own sake, in imagination. Combined with
hyperbolic over-valuation of the present, this ability is a potential
threat to both the individual's long term survival and the natural
selection of high intelligence. Human belief is intrinsically
“unfounded” or under-founded, which may or may not be adaptive.
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