moridinamael comments on I attempted the AI Box Experiment again! (And won - Twice!) - Less Wrong Discussion
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At the risk of sounding naive, I'll come right out and say it. It completely baffles me that so many people speak of this game as having an emotional toll. How is it possible for words, in a chat window, in the context of a fictional role-play, to have this kind of effect on people? What in god's name are you people saying to each other in there? I consider myself to be emotionally normal, a fairly empathetic person, etc. I can imagine experiencing disgust at, say, very graphic textual descriptions. There was that one post a few years back that scared some people - I wasn't viscerally worried by it, but I did understand how some people could be. That's literally the full extent of strings of text that I can remotely imagine causing distress (barring, say, real world emails about real-world tragedies). How is it possible that some of you are able to be so shocking / shocked in private chat sessions? Do you just have more vivid imaginations than I do?
I am inclined to agree with your general point; however, I myself have been moved to utter emotional devastation by works of fiction in the past. I'm talking real depression induced by reading a book. So I can imagine ways of hacking humans emotionally. I just have trouble imagining doing it in two hours to someone who is trying to be vigilant against such attacks.