5 ms·

If you limit your speech based on a speculative Orwellian autocracy, you are already living in your own personal one.

• jessaustin 11y ago
  Don't tell Roko's Basilisk.
  • drdeca 11y ago
    That actually is a very close analogue, isn't it. Nearly exact I think. Only difference being the thing being created is a government system instead of an AI, and the torture is done physically, instead of to a simulation. And really, if one accepts the idea of a simulation of oneself as being oneself, then the govt/ai distinction is, I think, mainly decoration at that point. Hm.
    • wiml 11y ago
      I think the analogy is pretty good. I've used the political example as a way to think about Roko's basilisk without the extropian/singularity mysticism that attaches to the original formulation. Recast, you could say: At some point within your natural lifetime, a brutal dictator will probably arise in the world (because, let's face it, horrific despotry is a recurring theme in human affairs). Clearly, any such dictator will want to punish people who did not help their rise to power by putting them in torture camps. Therefore, it is your only rational option to seek out the most brutal, repressive tyrant you can find and help them gain power. Any other action would be foolish! While that sounds kind of absurd, people do act on it. People assume that there will always be a neighborhood bully, a local crime boss, an exploitive employer, and so they try to get on the good side of the inevitable by gravitating to the most ruthless (and therefore most likely to overpower the others).