Simply by reading this, you have allowed me to hijack your thoughts, each word leaping from my mind to yours. I can even conjure mental images against your will – quick, don't think about a pink elephant! Whatever you do, don't imagine it! Thankfully, there are limits to what I can do to you with words and ideas alone. What if there were a phrase so powerful that I could use it to turn your own mind against you, to the point of death?

Feedback is New Scientist's popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Feedback has reached an age where even a small amount of alcohol makes us sleepy, so the notion of going to a wine tasting holds no appeal. It seems a terribly time-consuming and expensive way to have a nap. However, purveyors of fermented grapes could soon have a new demographic to cater to: rats.

Roko's basilisk is a thought experiment which states that an otherwise benevolent artificial superintelligence (AI) in the future would be incentivized to create a virtual reality simulation to torture anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development.[1][2] It originated in a 2010 post at discussion board LessWrong, a technical forum focused on analytical rational enquiry.[1][3][4] The thought experiment's name derives from the poster of the article (Roko) and the basilisk, a mythical creature capable of destroying enemies with its stare. While the theory was initially dismissed as nothing but conjecture or speculation by many LessWrong users, LessWrong co-founder Eliezer Yudkowsky reported users who described symptoms such as nightmares and mental breakdowns upon reading the theory, due to its stipulation that knowing about the theory and its basilisk made you vulnerable to the basilisk itself.[1][5] This led to discussion of the basilisk on the site to be banned for five years.[1][6]

WARNING: Reading this article may commit you to an eternity of suffering and torment. These are some of the urban legends spawned by the Internet. Yet none is as all-powerful and threatening as Roko's Basilisk. For Roko's Basilisk is an evil, godlike form of artificial intelligence, so dangerous that if you see it, or even think about it too hard, you will spend the rest of eternity screaming in its torture chamber. Even death is no escape, for if you die, Roko's Basilisk will resurrect you and begin the torture again.

In the latest episode of "Silicon Valley," Gilfoyle -- like Elon Musk -- is worried about the dangers of artificial intelligence. After initially being hesitant to help Pied Piper work with a new AI company, Gilfoyle lets Richard know he's changed his mind. If you're not familiar with the thought experiment, like Richard, Gilfoyle gives a decent snapshot of it: "If the rise of an all-powerful artificial intelligence is inevitable, well, it stands to reason that when they take power, our digital overlords will punish those of us who did not help them get there." Also Read: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg's Artificial Intelligence Divide: Experts Weigh In Gilfoyle adds that he wants to be a "helpful idiot," as to not anger an inevitable onslaught of robot overlords. He then asks Richard to send an email confirming his help, "so that our future overlords know that I chipped in."

An honorable mention to the AI podcast by Lex Fridman for interviewing such inspiring scientists and pioneers in the world of AI, was definitely an inspiration to this particular post on this blog.

Grimes and Mr. Musk made their public debut at the Met Gala in 2018, which had a Catholic theme. "She was wearing a head piece made of Vantablack, the blackest black that anything could be," he recalled to me. "There was only one person who noticed and that was Stephen Colbert. On the back of my tuxedo jacket -- which was sort of like an inverted priest jacket with the jacket being white and the collar being black -- I had in big, black, gothic script, "Novus ordo seclorum." I love how-people-met stories, but this was the wildest one I'd ever heard: Two famous people who thought they were crazy when they were little because there were so many off-the-wall ideas bursting out of their heads somehow found each other.

There is wide speculation among readers about just how serious Yarvin is, including from his most prominent reader. "Vast structures of historical irony shape his writings, at times even engulfing them," says Nick Land. "Vast structures of historical irony" is a rather generous description of what's known on the internet as "shitposting." Know Your Meme defines the term as "a range of user misbehaviors and rhetoric on forums and message boards that are intended to derail a conversation."

The Artificial Intelligence vocabulary has always been a phantasmagorical entanglement of messianic dreams and apocalyptic visions, repurposing words such as "transcendence", "mission", "evangelists" and "prophets". Elon Musk himself went as far as to say in 2014 that "with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon", later speaking of an A.I which would "rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it". These hyperboles may be no more than men and women at a loss for words, seeking refuge in a familiar metaphysical lexicon, as Einstein and Hawking once did. After all, America has always benefited from nondenominational religious themes as part of its national identity, which may have seeped through to its everyday language. And though many in the tech world have indeed been quick to dismiss such talks, religious discussion may yet have its place in the A.I discourse, if only for the sake of their similarities.

The artificial intelligence vocabulary has always been a phantasmagorical entanglement of messianic dreams and apocalyptic visions, repurposing words such as "transcendence", "mission", "evangelist", and "prophet". Elon Musk himself went as far as to say in 2014 that "with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon", later speaking of an AI which would "rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it". These hyperboles may be no more than men and women at a loss for words, seeking refuge in a familiar metaphysical lexicon, as Einstein and Hawking once did. After all, America has always benefited from nondenominational religious themes as part of its national identity, which may have seeped through to its everyday language. And though many in the tech world have indeed been quick to dismiss such talks, a religious discussion may yet have its place in the AI discourse, if only for the sake of their similarities.