I was getting email from LW readers obsessing and worried by the basilisk, even though they knew intellectually it was a silly idea, and unable to talk about it on LW. That's why I started the RW article (which, btw, this Slate article neither mentions nor links to), because individual email doesn't scale. None since that.
obsessing and worried by the basilisk, even though they knew intellectually it was a silly idea
I had a similar but much lesser reaction (mildly disquieting) to the portrait of Hell given in the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I found the portrait had strong immediate emotional impact. Good writing.
More strangely, even though I always had considered the probability that Hell exists as ludicrously tiny, it felt like that probability increased from the "evidence" of a fictional story.
Likely all sorts of biases involved, but is there one for strong emotions increasing assigned probability?
WARNING: Memetic hazard.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/07/roko_s_basilisk_the_most_terrifying_thought_experiment_of_all_time.html?wpisrc=obnetwork
Is there anything we should do?