@blotosmetek A girlfriend in his own image.

@fishidwardrobe It's obvious that theory of mind and awareness of self as distinct from the world are enormous benefits. So even within his own obsolete framework, Dawkins's question is absurd.

I'm just reporting what he thinks though.

FWIW, my own theory of mind is below. It's a research glossary though so not light reading: https://flux.community/eft/glossary.pdf

@fishidwardrobe As a computational functionalist, Dawkins believes that all traits or behaviors are naturally selected for some survival benefit.

Although he denies it vociferously, this is a teleological viewpoint, one that inevitably leads toward animist or dualist belief systems.

@lowtech Dawkins is a computational functionalist so he believes in only focusing on external behaviors, which makes him prone to the errors you cite.

I have a larger philosophical-scientific framework that describes what you are talking about in further detail.

FWIW, this is an introductory essay: https://flux.community/matthew-sheffield/2026/01/its-like-this-why-perceptions-are-our-realities/

And this is the full framework: https://flux.community/eft/glossary.pdf

@internetsdairy I'm sure it's going to be about a brilliant and yet misunderstood scientist.

LLMs are mirrors of their users. It's no coincidence that narcissists like Richard Dawkins keep writing essays about how their AI girlfriend is alive.

Nor can he see the complete hypocrisy of gendering a software execution state while also believing that human beings cannot be trans.

The "End of History" guy wrote this exact same article a year ago: https://www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt-teacher

@urbanfoxe Used without understanding and awareness of what they are, they can create and magnify delusions.

@MidniteMikeWrites Thanks. Yes it's very unfortunate that people often reify scientific description.

Causation, solidity, color, and anything we can perceive about other people or objects are all enacted by our own minds.

Dawkins, being a narcissist, does not see other minds as fully real unless they are obsequious to him. And since chatbots are great at user flattery, this was enough.

@distractal Yes. Although even plenty of non-egotistical atheists fall for these delusions because they don't understand that causation is a projection of human minds and that all meaning is enacted.

@MisuseCase

@urbanfoxe LLMs are mind augmentation programs. They amplify what you tell them.

They can be very useful, but for narcissists like Dawkins, this is the inevitable product.

Dawkins is a great example of how people who have a naturalistic view of "real patterns" but don't have a process ontology will end up in metaphysical dualism unintentionally.

Minds are not software, they are what specific bodies are doing as they engage with the world. https://flux.community/matthew-sheffield/2026/01/its-like-this-why-perceptions-are-our-realities/

In totally unsurprising news, Richard Dawkins is developing AI psychosis.

Paywall bypass if you want to torture yourself: https://archive.is/6RdK9

#atheism