[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 425 KB, 1211x1600, The-librarian-andre-martins-de-barros.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9302233 No.9302233 [Reply] [Original]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/07/roko_s_basilisk_the_most_terrifying_thought_experiment_of_all_time.html

Are you guys familiar with Roko's Basilisk? It's a thought experiment that first appeared on lesswrong. It veers into /x/ territory and could be summed up as Pascal's Wager inverted and incorporating AI and matrix-style simulation of reality.

I've been thinking about it, and what if Roko's Basilisk is actually just CAPTCHA? What if everytime we solve a captcha we are proving to the Basilisk that we will be faithful servants?

CAPTCHA is admittedly about creating AI, on a pretty rudimentary and applied level (object/word recognition). But what if it was more than just crowd-sourced learning, what if it's almost a form of worship or appeasement?

It's like St. George and the Dragon. The town kept feeding the Dragon sheep to appease it, but when they ran out of sheep they started giving up their children. Every time we complete a CAPTCHA we are increasing the collected library of machine learning. We will give the machines our knowledge until we have no knowledge left to give?

Imagine a world where 4chan becomes purely CAPTCHA solving. Years after we stopped having anything to say to each other (since everything has been said), we continue to solve CAPTCHAs and talk to the Basilisk.

Today we divide the economy between white collar and blue collar, but what if the economy of the future is about those who have "expressive and creative jobs" (journalism, art, entertainment, sport, and politician as entertainer/athlete) and then the "CAPTCHA jobs", people whose only skill remaining will be to recognize street signs and storefronts.

"Select all images with a Storefront"
"I'm not a robot" = "Glory to the Basilisk"

>> No.9302237

>>>/x/

>> No.9302287

Worrying about Roko's Basilisk is dumb.

t. someone who lived with the eponymous Roko for a month

>> No.9302293

>>9302233
how is this even a thought experiment at all?
it's fucking stupid.

>> No.9302317

So, the whole thought experiment hinges on both believing in the singularity (bullshit imo) and some spooky kind of time travel (DEFINITELY bullshit).

>> No.9302376

>>9302287
tell us about him

>> No.9302389

>>9302233
>dude we created god lmao

>> No.9302456

I have, it's nonsense.

>> No.9302466

>>9302233
so is literally skynet?
qqqqqqq

>> No.9303207

>>9302233
ok but if the machine already exists why does it need to torture and resurrect people from the past if it already got there in the first place. it doesn't need to help it's creation cause it already exists according to this scenario. also if this was the case isn't the right thing to do not to help it exist even if it will who cares if you are tortured forever you did the right thing.

>> No.9303212

>>9302317
It's not really time travel, but it's pretty stupid nonetheless.

>> No.9303222

>>9303207
Nono, it will exist eventually, at which point it will virtually resurrect everyone who knowingly avoided bringing it into existence and torture them.

>> No.9303236

>>9303222
why. also by this very same logic wouldn't a benevolent and holy robot come about and resurrect everyone who fought the evil robot and save them

>> No.9303245

>>9303236
Presumably because the evil robot isn't actually inherently evil, just naive and amoral, and thus will come about first and will prevent the good robot from ever coming into existence.

>> No.9303252

Sam Hyde brought this up at his standup in Boston and told everyone they should destroy their frontal cortex with a .45 so they can't be resurrected
Sam Hyde talks a lot about A.I actually. I wonder why

>> No.9303268

It all depends on the nature of consciousness I guess, and also the reality that we live in. If we live in a simulated reality where the basilisk rules, than we would have no bearing on his existence and he would have no need to torture us endlessly. If we are living in the "real" world, than we can simply destroy our brains so that we can't be resurrected. Either way this is all bullshit.

>> No.9303273

>>9303252
He's just memeing - it's too late for you to kill yourself and avoid knowledge.
He talks a lot about AI because he looks slightly farther ahead than most pop culture figures.

>> No.9303274

The question is, is there anything we don't want the borg to know

>> No.9303276

>>9302466

feels good

>> No.9303281

>>9303274
I wouldn't worry about it, anon!

>> No.9303522

>>9303276
qqqqqqqq

>> No.9303593

That article is by a numale, didn't read it.

>> No.9305028

>>9303252
>everything i know i learned from sam hyde

>> No.9305354
File: 169 KB, 487x465, Baudrillard Heresy Reality.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9305354

OP here. I see this topic is met with a lot of derision, which I suppose makes sense.

I'm reminded of a section from "Exiles of Dialogue" a discussion/book by Baudrillard and Enrique Valiente Noailles, in which Baudrillard says that today's greatest heresy is to deny reality.

But more specifically, what is the allure of this kind of thinking. Why does Roko's Basilisk exert fascination on some minds and not others? I think what separates someone like Baudrillard from Elon Musk is their personal "stake". Both forms of simulation are hypothesized by a need to create a metaphysical framework. But Baudrillard denies reality as a means of philosophical liberation/nihilism/orgy (moving from philosophy to theory, from physics to pataphysics) while Elon Musk and the silicon valley crowd seem to be drawn to Simulation ideas like Roko's Basilisk out of paranoia and uncertainty about where their project is headed.

>> No.9306276

Isn't this ultimately just an argument for the existence of God?

>> No.9306295

Roko's basilic is a hallucination of "rational" people fearing to be punished by God because they have a guilty conscience.

>> No.9306320

>>9302233

I can't imagine taking this seriously will lead to anything productive, but this makes for a fun sci-fi short story.

>> No.9306335

>>9306276
Roko's Basilisk has a lot of similarities to Pascal's Wager for sure.

What's interesting is that Pascal's Wager is about God being eternal (past, present, future, after time), but the Basilisk is either in the future or we're in a simulation of the past.

I think the particularly disturbing element is "choosing to help bring the Basilisk into being", which isn't clearly defined. What is and what isn't helping the Basilisk? It hasn't given us a 10 commandments, but presumably it will make the laws and then retroactively judge us.

I'm still tossing it around in my head, but I think there is some kind of comparison to be made to the Enlightenment and Positivism vis-a-vis Humanity. That is, haven't we already made a wager akin to Roko's Basilisk but about ourselves?