If the basilisk is correct* it seems any indirect approach is doomed, but I don't see how it prevents a direct approach. But that has it's own set of probably-insurmountable problems, I'd wager.
* I remain highly uncertain about that, but it's not something I can claim to have a good grasp on or to have thought a lot about.
My position on the basilisk: if someone comes to me worrying about it, I can probably convince them not to worry (I've done that several times), but if someone comes up with an AI idea that seems to suffer from basilisks, I hope that AI doesn't get built. Unfortunately we don't know very much. IMO open discussion would help.
I think I've found a new argument, which I'll call X, against Paul Christiano's "indirect normativity" approach to FAI goals. I just discussed X with Paul, who agreed that it's serious.
This post won't describe X in detail because it's based on basilisks, which are a forbidden topic on LW, and I respect Eliezer's requests despite sometimes disagreeing with them. If you understand Paul's idea and understand basilisks, figuring out X should take you about five minutes (there's only one obvious way to combine the two ideas), so you might as well do it now. If you decide to discuss X here, please try to follow the spirit of LW policy.
In conclusion, I'd like to ask Eliezer to rethink his position on secrecy. If more LWers understood basilisks, somebody might have come up with X earlier.