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CAE_Jones comments on I played the AI Box Experiment again! (and lost both games) - Less Wrong Discussion
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Consider someone for whom there are one or two specific subjects that will cause them a great deal of distress. These are particular to the individual--even if something in the wild reminds them of it, it's so indirect and clearly not targeted, so it would be rare that anyone would actually find it without getting into the individual's confidence.
Now, put that individual alone with a transhuman intelligence trying to gain write access to the world at all costs.
I'm not convinced this sort of attack was involved in the AI box experiments, but it's both the sort of thing that could have a strong emotional impact, and the sort of thing that would leave both parties willing to keep the logs private.
I guess I kind of excluded the category of individuals who have these triggers with the "mentally healthy" consideration. I assumed that the average person doesn't have topics that they are unable to even think about without incapacitating emotional consequences. I certainly believe that such people exist, but I didn't think it was that common.
Am I wrong about this? Do many other people have certain topics they can't even think about without experiencing trauma? I suppose they wouldn't...couldn't tell me about it if they did, but I think I've got sufficient empathy to see some evidence of everyone was holding PTSD-sized mental wounds just beneath the surface.
We spend a lot of time talking about avoiding thought suppression. It's a huge problem impediment for a rationalist if there is anything they mustn't think about - and obviously, it's painful. Should we be talking more about how to patch mental wounds?
I'm mostly mentally healthy, and I don't have any triggers in the PTSD-sense. But there are topics that I literally can't think rationally about and that, if I dwell on them, either depress or enrage me.
I consider myself very balanced but this balance involves avoiding certain extremes. Emotional extremes. There are some realms of imagination that concern pain and suffering that'd cause me cringe with empathy and bring me to tears and help or possibly run away screaming in panic and fear - if I'd see them. Even imagining such is difficult and possible only in abstract terms lest it actually cause such reaction in me. Or else I'd become dull to it (which is a protection mechanism). Sure dealing with such horrors can be trained. Otherwise people couldn't stand horror movies which forces to separate the real from the imagined. But then I don't see any need to train this (and risk loosing my empathy even slightly).