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Plasmon comments on Open thread, February 15-28, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (345)
Just to be charitable to Eliezer, let me remind you of this quote. For example, can you conceive of a reason (not necessarily the officially stated one) that the actual basilisk discussion ought to be suppressed, even at the cost of the damage done to LW credibility (such as it is) by an offsite discussion of such suppression?
I thought this is more akin to Scientology, where any mention of Xenu to the uninitiated ought to be suppressed.
Sure does. Then again, it probably sucks more being Laocoön.
The basilisk is harmless. Eliezer knows this. The streisand effect was the intended consequence of the censor. The hope is that people who become aware of the basilisk will increase their priors for the existence of real information hazards, and will in the future be less likely to read anything marked as such. It's all a clever memetic inoculation program!
disclaimer : I don't actually believe this.
Another possibility: Eliezer doesn't object to the meme that anyone who doesn't donate to SIAI/MIRI will spend eternity in hell being spread in a deniable way.
Why stop there? In fact, Roko was one of Eliezer's many socks puppets. It's your basic Ender's Game stuff.
We are actually all Eliezer's sock puppets. Most of us unfortunately are straw men.
We are the hollow men / we are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! / Our dried comments when / we discuss together / Are quiet and meaningless / As median-cited papers / or reports of supplements / on the Internet.
Another possibility: Eliezer does not want the meme to be associated with LW. Because, even if it was written by someone else, most people are predictably likely to read it and remember: "This is an idea I read on LW, so this must be what they believe."
It's certainly an inoculation for information hazards. Or at least against believing information hazard warnings.
Alternatively, the people dismissing the idea out of hand are not taking it seriously and thus not triggering the information hazard.
Also the censorship of the basilisk was by no means the most troubling part of the Roko incident, and as long as people focus on that they're not focusing on the more disturbing issues.
Edit: The most troubling part were some comments, also deleted, indicating just how fanatically loyal some of Eliezer's followers are.
Really? Or do you just want us to believe that you don't believe this???