Anyone familar with this?
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko's_basilisk
It is pretty fucked up. It is a funny thought experiment - but the link above is a bit confusing.
I just wanted to see if anyone else here had ever come across it?
This is my take on it.
First of all - there was an old joke called 'The Game'.
The game is stupid and simple.
The rule was that everytime you thought about 'The Game' you lost a point.
And the goal was to get to the end of each day without ever thinking about 'The Game'. So by even writing this - I am losing against my brother who first introduced me to this stupid meta-game, and who has (one assumes) spent the entire day not thinking about 'The Game' and by doing so has beaten me for today.
And by reading this - you will all (by definition) be participants in this 'game' for the rest of your lives. And everytime you think about it - you will be losing. Except when you die - in which case you will probably spend forever winning 'the game'.
It is a stupid game. But it has a certain elegance to its structure due to its recursive quality.
Anyway...
Roko's basilisk seems to have a similar quality. I recently saw a reference to it in one of the comments on the marginalrevolution.com blog.
Anyway - first of all - I would be interested to know the history behind the name?
And secondly - it seems that this 'concept' is banned from even being mentioned on alot of computer science forums. Since some nerds take the concept so seriously that they are genuinely scared of it...
Indeed - by even continuting to read this post you may be condemning yourself to an eternity in Hell. You have being warned...
Let me explain...
At some point - we may reach the technological singularity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
At some point Humanity will invent an intelligence which is even more intelligent than humans.
And when that happens - that intelligence will create an intelligent entity even more intelligent than itself. And that intelligent entity will create one even more intelligent that itself.
In quick succession - there will be an exponential increase in intelligence created by a chain reaction sparked by the first Advanced Artifical Intelligence which is invented by humans.
That is the idea.
And soon after this occurs - some believe that a 'God' like intelligence will come into existence which will be indistinguishable to us from God. The character of 'Q' on Star Trek might be a good analogy to this.
And - getting back to Roko's basilisk it seems that such a God will punish those who did not help him come into existence. And not only that - being a rational God - he will punish those who were aware of the concept of the technological singularity and the concept of Roko's basilisk which says that those who are aware of this possibility will be punished more than those who were never even aware of it.
Which means - by reading this far - you are already condemned to an eternity in Hell.
Sorry about that.
Unless you devote the rest of your lives to trying to breach the technological singularity and thus help bring into existence the super-intelligence which will one day be our 'God'.
I dunno' - the whole thing is fucked up. And totally new to me. I wouldn't be surprised if I have messed up some details along the way.
But I enjoy unusual gedanken. And was just hoping somebody else might be familiar with this meme?
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko's_basilisk
It is pretty fucked up. It is a funny thought experiment - but the link above is a bit confusing.
I just wanted to see if anyone else here had ever come across it?
This is my take on it.
First of all - there was an old joke called 'The Game'.
The game is stupid and simple.
The rule was that everytime you thought about 'The Game' you lost a point.
And the goal was to get to the end of each day without ever thinking about 'The Game'. So by even writing this - I am losing against my brother who first introduced me to this stupid meta-game, and who has (one assumes) spent the entire day not thinking about 'The Game' and by doing so has beaten me for today.
And by reading this - you will all (by definition) be participants in this 'game' for the rest of your lives. And everytime you think about it - you will be losing. Except when you die - in which case you will probably spend forever winning 'the game'.
It is a stupid game. But it has a certain elegance to its structure due to its recursive quality.
Anyway...
Roko's basilisk seems to have a similar quality. I recently saw a reference to it in one of the comments on the marginalrevolution.com blog.
Anyway - first of all - I would be interested to know the history behind the name?
And secondly - it seems that this 'concept' is banned from even being mentioned on alot of computer science forums. Since some nerds take the concept so seriously that they are genuinely scared of it...
Indeed - by even continuting to read this post you may be condemning yourself to an eternity in Hell. You have being warned...
Let me explain...
At some point - we may reach the technological singularity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
At some point Humanity will invent an intelligence which is even more intelligent than humans.
And when that happens - that intelligence will create an intelligent entity even more intelligent than itself. And that intelligent entity will create one even more intelligent that itself.
In quick succession - there will be an exponential increase in intelligence created by a chain reaction sparked by the first Advanced Artifical Intelligence which is invented by humans.
That is the idea.
And soon after this occurs - some believe that a 'God' like intelligence will come into existence which will be indistinguishable to us from God. The character of 'Q' on Star Trek might be a good analogy to this.
And - getting back to Roko's basilisk it seems that such a God will punish those who did not help him come into existence. And not only that - being a rational God - he will punish those who were aware of the concept of the technological singularity and the concept of Roko's basilisk which says that those who are aware of this possibility will be punished more than those who were never even aware of it.
Which means - by reading this far - you are already condemned to an eternity in Hell.
Sorry about that.
Unless you devote the rest of your lives to trying to breach the technological singularity and thus help bring into existence the super-intelligence which will one day be our 'God'.
I dunno' - the whole thing is fucked up. And totally new to me. I wouldn't be surprised if I have messed up some details along the way.
But I enjoy unusual gedanken. And was just hoping somebody else might be familiar with this meme?