wedrifid comments on Possible Cockatrice in written form - Less Wrong

-5 Post author: Aurini 05 January 2011 09:54AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 05 January 2011 10:30:54AM 2 points [-]

That aside, I doubt it's a real cockatrice - or we would've heard about it before.

Why? Cockatrices being dangerous and all I would expect some of them haven't filtered down to me in reports. Is there a list of known cockatrices out there somewhere? Now I'm curious.

Comment author: David_Gerard 05 January 2011 03:45:35PM 2 points [-]

All++ existential risk to humanity is because we are stupid monkeys who don't know not to press the button marked "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON".

++ exaggeration for literary effect

Comment author: wedrifid 05 January 2011 04:45:50PM 0 points [-]

All++ existential risk to humanity is because we are stupid monkeys who don't know not to press the button marked "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON".

For some reason I'm not in the mood to find some wet paint and start touching it. Because you don't really know till you test it.

++ exaggeration for literary effect

Like it.

Comment author: David_Gerard 06 January 2011 12:10:49AM -1 points [-]

I still haven't gone looking for 2 Girls 1 Cup ;-) That said, I can't think of a decompartmentalisation I wouldn't personally dive head first into. And that's knowing everything I know about the serious danger of poison memes.

Comment author: shokwave 06 January 2011 07:35:27AM 1 point [-]

Have you experimented with signalling your ability to not press the button marked "DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON" in other social contexts? It's par for the course (sort of) on LessWrong, but you get some bizarre results in more normal places. I quite enjoyed the responses I got!

Comment author: David_Gerard 06 January 2011 10:21:09AM *  0 points [-]

No, I haven't :-) What sort of responses do you get? Could you please list some?

(I find myself in the position of being the only guy who has root and cares to do site admin on the server hosting Lemonparty (Wikipedia explanation). I found a few other shock sites hosted there too when I did a cleanout of dead accounts. It's slightly disquieting to find myself responsible for maintaining this species of cultural icon.)

Comment author: shokwave 06 January 2011 11:42:52AM 4 points [-]

Note that some of these responses are from people who derive pleasure from subverting expectations.

  • "Oh, it's not like, really creepy. It's just a little bit creepy. Go on, look!" (and variations on making the button pressable enough to make me press it)
  • "But, this is definitely the most disgusting joke ever. Not just at the top of the list, man, this is like Bill Gates in Africa top of the list." (Bizarrely, trying to make the button more pressable by making it more banned)
  • Blank incomprehension, the sort you'd get if you answered "mu" to a normal question. (Possibly they hadn't realised "I guarantee you will feel sick" isn't another way of saying "Check it out!")
  • One specific comment was unusually clear: she said "No, do it, I want to say I told you so."

It is surreal watching people try to argue you out of taking their warning seriously.

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