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The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

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Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#41

Post by dm2 »

Shivetya wrote: post #34
dm2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Richard Branson and thousands of other top minds would agree with what you said. I don't think anyone would actually disagree and be able to provide a valid reason. Politics, money, religion, and several other irrelevant factors keep it highly illegal. It even has come to the point where states are ignoring federal law, so progress is happening thankfully. Changi…

Uh, SWAT teams are already making drug raids. That is what happened recently in Atlanta where they did a no knock warrant and flash banged an infant in his crib. If anything we need to remove SWAT teams from existence as well as no knock warrants for any charge short of murder.

I completely agree. I had heard of the incident you mentioned but it's not the first time that near exact situation has happened and I didn't realize it was just this year.

http://rt.com/usa/swat-billings-burns-fasching-312/

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/swat-throws-grenade-in-pl...

My comment was mainly referring to large organized crime or violent gangs that would warrant a SWAT team. I've seen SWAT called in for college students because an undercover smelled marijuana. Who were they trying to help? The students that wanted marijuana? Didn't we learn our lessons about prohibition 90 years ago?

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#43

Post by thret »

Liesmith wrote: post #10
bungle wrote: post #2

Just don't choose any of the boxes and be done with it, ;-). It will BSOD the God machine.

Flip a coin.

That was my thought too, until I realised the only correct response for the AI would be to also flip a coin. I'd prefer to take the million rather than a 50% chance to beat the AI.

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#44

Post by IgorPartola »

Really? Peter Thiel spends his time in this circle jerk? Let me give so life advice that will go unhedged, I am sure. If stuff like this gives you nightmares, get off your fucking computer. Get a different hobby so you can stop losing sleep over killer robots that you built just so they can torture you.

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#45

Post by Tenoke »

IgorPartola wrote: post #44

Really? Peter Thiel spends his time in this circle jerk? Let me give so life advice that will go unhedged, I am sure. If stuff like this gives you nightmares, get off your fucking computer . Get a different hobby so you can stop losing sleep over killer robots that you built just so they can torture you.

There's about 1 confirmed person who got 'nightmares' from the basilisk (Roko), and possibly a very few others who have never said so publicly (as far as I know).

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#46

Post by thegeomaster »

a_bonobo wrote: post #37
crdoconnor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Because Pascal's wager could apply to any possible variation of supreme being - including non-sensical ones and ones that will punish you if you DO believe in them. * Roko's Basilisk isn't really a deity, it's a powerful AI with the capability of simulating you and everybody else (or possibly just you). * Pascal's wager does concern itself with the possibility that you are currently in a simulation.

>Roko's Basilisk isn't really a deity, it's a powerful AI with the capability of simulating you and everybody else (or possibly just you). At the risk of sounding flippant: What's the difference? If the AI is so powerful that it can simulate my thoughts (which would imply that thoughts and all of life is 100% deterministic), it has to be so powerful that it's practically omnipotent, and therefore, a God.

The difference is at most the terminology. I'm sure that a lot of weed-smoking metaphysicists can say this better than I can, but the whole point of calling something God is that it's beyond your perception, and as such your perception can't help you understand it. Similarly, if your neurons are simulated by an AI, you can do nothing to prove its existence or non-existence. It's the same thing, IMHO.

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#47

Post by resdirector »

dm2 wrote: post #22
resdirector wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT but IMO it's such a huge cost to the economy (and humanity) that marijuana is still taboo. The thought experiments that you describe, for me at least, are not only fun, but more often than not lead to practical, wealth-generating breakthroughs. I assume I'm not the only one. I hope one day historians and economists will study the lost opportunity costs of the prohibition / taboo nature of marijuana.

Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Richard Branson and thousands of other top minds would agree with what you said. I don't think anyone would actually disagree and be able to provide a valid reason. Politics, money, religion, and several other irrelevant factors keep it highly illegal. It even has come to the point where states are ignoring federal law, so progress is happening thankfully. Changi…

As the world slowly moves to a knowledge and innovation economy as opposed to a hard-graft economy of the last few millennia, I think we'll see a tipping point. Those with money/power will be increasingly made up of pro-legalization advocates.

I'd be surprised if there isn't full legalization in the US within the next twenty years. And books with titles such as: "How To Expand Your Business And Increase Your Revenue Through The Power Of Marijuana" on the best-seller list.

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#48

Post by adwn »

> LessWrong’s founder, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is a significant figure in techno-futurism [...]

What? Is this true, or just gullible journalism?

> Yudkowsky said that Roko had already given nightmares to several LessWrong users and had brought them to the point of breakdown.

It seems like some users of LessWrong need to spend more time in the real world and less time on stupid thought experiments.

Re: The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time

#49

Post by jcbrand »

There's something very religious about the whole singularity movement.

Roko's Basilisk doesn't appear very different to me than Pascal's Wager, with the added twist that the God you have to believe in is actually a malevolent demiurge (as envisioned by the Gnostic christian sects more than a 1000 years ago).

If you already have a cynical viewpoint on religion, then this thought experiment is very similar to the "deal" monotheistic religions have been offering through the ages.

Either believe in our god (and therefore give us, as his sole representatives enormous, unfettered power), or suffer eternal hell! (or not ;)

Throughout the ages, people were terrified of hell. This is just a modern twist on an old idea.

I used to be scared of hell, until I realized that hell "existed" only as long I believed in it. If I stopped believing in it, it "disappeared". That's the power of belief. Yes, it might still exist whether I believe or not, but life is full of "what ifs", the contemplation of which might drive you crazy.

Better to follow a positive and compassionate path then a fear based "what if" path.

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