Roko's Basilisk is utter nonsense but also the perfect expression of the personality problems of all involved. They projected all their nerdy internal fantasies of wasted super-potential onto the singularity itself, then conjured a demon to punish them for being simply too brilliant but too busy to save humanity. Because of course they'd be the ones tortured. Of course this forum was home of the sort of world-altering ultraminds the Basilisk would have expected better from. And their idea of the ultimate intelligence gaining total power is, "Well, of course it'd start torturing all its enemies, even only tangentially perceived enemies who've never met them or affected them directly." That's nothing to do with the future, but it's everything to do with Internet-obsessive groups. Only this lot decided to target themselves, neatly closing the circle.
They conjured their own all-powerful deity to punish them for failing to live up to their true world-changing potential, just so that they could pretend they had any. They trapped themselves in a thought experiment of their own making, a prison whose only bars are how smart they think they are. And so they found them unbreakable.
This isn't just a misuse of Internet; it's a misuse of all future comms and connection technology. They reversed the polarity of all progress: Instead of learning about others and helping people, they pondered themselves to make things worse.
Thanks to Herr Direktor Funranium for the radiation bucket: When not making ultracoffee, he enjoys telling tales of adventure, radiation, and radioactive adventure.
Red Dave of This Blog Delivers also ponders the world and most of the fun things in it at Live At The Witch Trials.
Luke has a website, tumbles, and responds to every single tweet.
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