About

Roko's Basilisk is a thought experiment based on the premise that a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) in the future would be driven to retroactively harm anyone who did not work to support or help create it in the past. It is referred to as a "basilisk" based on the premise that the AI might punish those who heard about the hypothesis but did nothing to help create the AI, similar to how the gaze of a mythical reptilian creature known as a "basilisk" in European bestiaries would cause death to those who looked directly into its eyes.

Origin

On July 23rd, 2010, LessWrong Forums user Roko proposed a thought experiment about a future artificial superintelligence that would destroy humans who did not support bringing it into existence.^[2]

In reaction to the post, LessWrong founder Eliezer Yudkowsky harshly criticized the thought experiment, referring to it as a "genuinely dangerous thought" that could potentially drive a future AI to actually act on it. Shortly after, Yudkowsky deleted Roko's post and banned discussion of the subject for five years.

Etymology

The term "basilisk" refers to a legendary reptilian creature capable of killing with its stare alone. In the short science fiction story "Blit" by author David Langford, a "basilisk" refers to information that is able to crash a human mind by triggering thoughts the brain is incapable of thinking.^[9]

Spread

On July 17th, 2014, Slate^[3] published an article about Roko's Basilisk titled "The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time."

On August 4th, Yudkowsky replied to a post on the /r/Futurology^[4] subreddit about the thought experiment, in which he explained why he had such a harsh reaction to Roko's post:

"Why I yelled at Roko: Because I was caught flatfooted in surprise, because I was indignant to the point of genuine emotional shock, at the concept that somebody who thought they'd invented a brilliant idea that would cause future AIs to torture people who had the thought, had promptly posted it to the public Internet."

On October 6th, 2015, and entry for the thought experiment was created on the LessWrong Wiki.^[8]

On December 19th, the Countdown Central YouTube channel uploaded a video titled "10 Scariest Theories Known to Man," which included the Roco's Basilisk thought experiment (shown below).

In April 2018, an episode of the show Silicon Valley was broadcast, in which the character Gilfoyle mentions the Roko's Basilisk thought experiment (shown below).

Elon Musk and Grimes

On October 26th, 2015, Grimes released a music video for the song "Flesh Without Blood" (shown below). In an interview with the music news site Fuse,^[5] Grimes revealed that the character she portrays in the video is named Roccoco Basilisk, who is "doomed to be eternally tortured by an artificial intelligence, but she's also kind of like Marie Antoinette."

On May 7th, 2018, the celebrity news site PageSix^[6] reported that Elon Musk originally reached out to Grimes online after he planned to make a "Rococo Basilisk" joke, but discovered that Grimes had already thought of it several years prior. That day, Musk tweeted "Rococo basilisk" (shown below).^[7]

"We Appreciate Power"

On November 28th, 2018, Grimes released the music video for her track "We Appreciate Power," which contains lyrics referencing an artificial superintelligence (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video accumulated more than 400,000 views and 4,200 comments.

Search Interest

External References