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.

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.

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."

Left me in a kind of pot-haze when I was done. Hard sci-fi buffs and Kurzweil fans will certainly be titillated by this one. Definitely recommended, Blackbourne is author to keep an eye on!

Having read Roko's Basilisk, I was excited to read Roko's Labyrinth. The story is set sixteen years after the events of the first book, and follows a young computer programmer, Nick Rose, as he is tasked with breaking into an AI system to find the secret to saving humanity. I loved the advances in technology since the first book. Most notably, humans have now developed a way of splicing robotic cells into their bloodstream, which give them the ability to slow down the senses and give them more time to think. The AIs have also evolved -- Roko's Basilisk has multiplied into hundreds of individual AIs, all of them fighting against humanity and each other.

My stomach sank the moment the young man stood up. I'd observed him from afar during the coffee breaks, and I knew the word'Theologian' was scrawled on the delegate badge pinned to his lapel, as if he'd been a last-minute addition the conference. He cleared his throat and asked the panel on stage how they'd solve the problem of selecting which moral codes we ought to program into artificially intelligent machines (AI). 'For example, masturbation is against my religious beliefs,' he said. 'So I wonder how we'd go about choosing which of our morals are important?'

It could soon be a common sight swinging through the trees of forest, coming to the aid of hikers and deliver spare parts to remote areas. Called Roko, it looks and acts like a real chimpanzee, swinging from branch to branch using extendable arms with hook-grip hands. The bizarre concept is designed to reach places normal drones or even humans would struggle to reach. The bizarre concept is designed to reach places normal drones or even humans would struggle to get to. Roko swings from branch to branch using extendable arms with hook-grip hands.