The second F in the title of this episode, not a typo.

What the fucking fuck?

This is a really weird one.

And it all began with the focus on something that doesn't sound weird at all.

Rationalism.

A belief or theory that opinions and action should be based on reason and knowledge

rather than on religious belief or emotional response.

How did a focus on something that sounds so grounded, something that sounds the opposite of anything

cult like, get so damn culty? What does it mean to be a rational human being?

Rationality is defined as the quality of being based on or in accordance with reason or logic

unfortunately for us lowly meet sac humans we're usually based on or according to a lot of other

shit other than reason or logic she likes strong personal biases outlandish irrational desires

lust greed basic hunger essentially if it's one of the seven deadly sins,

we all have at least a little bit of it in us, clouding our judgment in small or not so small ways.

But does this always have to be the case? Are human beings inherently irrational to some

degree, superstitious creatures who frequently assign meaning to things that don't actually have inherent meaning,

creatures who too often act on their worst impulses, even when they know it's the wrong thing to do?

Are we even capable of the possession of some sort of unemotional, completely based in logic, superintelligence?

Could we ever become purely rational, perhaps through studying the works of philosophers,

innovators, and visionaries?

Could we at least create a form of purely rational intelligence through technological means,

like artificial intelligence modeling?

...