Roko’s Basilisk
WARNING: BY READING THE DESCRIPTION OF THIS THOUGHT EXPERIMENT, EVEN KNOWING THAT IT EXISTS, YOU ARE UPSETTING A FUTURE ROBOT GOD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
That dumb disclaimer should give you a little hint of the stench of the pile of philosophical manure you’re wading into. The best thought experiments present a complicated, ethical or philosophical problem in an easy-to-visualize format. Roko’s Basilisk does absolutely none of that. It originated from an online forum full of future-obsessed tech guys, so you know you’re in for an absolute treat. I’m going to do my absolute best to describe it in any sort of succinct manner (all the best thought experiments require dozens of specific variables, after all). I’m opening myself up to danger here, because discussing Roko’s Basilisk truly does open you up to a horrible future — that of endless red-faced futurists tracking you down and setting upon your humorous internet article with the ferocity of a condescending mental wendigo.
As brief as I can make it: Roko’s Basilisk first suggests that in the future, there is a borderline omniscient A.I. that has been brought into being, basically the outcome of “the singularity.” Once this sentience exists, it will identify those who are against its goal (sometimes suggested as “creating utopia”) as threats worthy of elimination or subjugation. This thought by the A.I., though, will then extend backwards in time to not only people who are presently trying to hamstring it, but to everyone who impeded its creation or the chain of events that made it possible. Sort of an A.I. version of a despotic ruler taking control and then jailing or executing those who opposed their rise to power. The danger suggested here is: Now that you know about the future existence of this A.I., you are officially on one side or the other, and if you don’t support and assist in its creation, you have just doomed yourself. You basically just lost The Game, where your punishment for doing so is getting chopped up by lasers or put in robot jail.
If this horrible malevolent technological God ever arises and asks me why I did not assist in its development, I will simply answer: Dude, I was mostly just eating chips.
Hamlet Monkeys
As much as I love monkeys, I never need to hear this tired-ass “thought experiment” ever again. It’s one of a whole smorgasbord of hypothetical situations created to constantly try to reinforce the idea that yes, infinity really does mean infinity. It’s a delightful mental picture, but it’s wholly unnecessary. If someone doesn’t understand that infinite time creates infinite possibilities, best of luck to them. If the idea of infinite timelines, something that’s a core part of a blockbuster Avengers movie, is too powerful for their brain, I think it’s time to let them continue trying to successfully complete a single crossword puzzle.