Example Of Rationalist Failure

By Leo Gura - December 11, 2025

I heard a recent news story of a CalTech professor who got so wrapped up chatting with his ChatGPT-like AI, the AI flattered all of his biases, created an echochamber, and he got lost in grand delusions about how he figured out all of reality and that we are living in a computer simulation, and so on. His wife had to save him from this AI psychosis.

That’s what happens when you outsource your truth-seeking, give away your sovereignty/authority to others, fail to take epistemic responsibility, and buy into the group-think of the day.

This is a perfect example of rationalism as self-deception. This guy did not master his own mind, did not take the things I teach seriously, and then went off and got Maya-ed by ChatGPT’s flattery. And I’m sure to him it all felt like he was being very rational and scientific. This demonstrates how good sense-making is far more than science and how vulnerable the academic mind is to self-deception. Because self-deception & illusion transcends science.

How do we educate people against this kind of thing? That’s why Actualized.org exists. This is what I’ve spent my whole life researching and contemplating.

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