Earlier quoted context omitted.
So people cannot just dismiss this thing as bullshit? What is the actual thinking of these individuals? I am having a really hard time relating to them.
From the small sample of victims I know of, they tend to be aspergic, have OCD, have not so strong a sense of self, and buy into all the LW versions of the transhumanist memes. They realise intellectually that it's a silly idea - but something about the story pushes all their buttons, perfectly wrongly. When I stsrted getting email from them (cos I edit RW, RW was pretty much the only place on the Internet that menti…
What really got me was Eliezer's reaction:
> Listen to me very closely, you idiot. YOU DO NOT THINK IN SUFFICIENT DETAIL ABOUT SUPERINTELLIGENCES CONSIDERING WHETHER OR NOT TO BLACKMAIL YOU. THAT IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING WHICH GIVES THEM A MOTIVE TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON THE BLACKMAIL. You have to be really clever to come up with a genuinely dangerous thought. I am disheartened that people can be clever enough to do that and not clever enough to do the obvious thing and KEEP THEIR IDIOT MOUTHS SHUT about it, because it is much more important to sound intelligent when talking to your friends. This post was STUPID.
Roko's Basilisk is a fun paradox, but this type of reaction treats it like a real thing, which it is not.