TobyBartels comments on xkcd on the AI box experiment - Less Wrong Discussion
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Comments (229)
It's hard to polish a turd. And I think all the people who have responded by saying that Eliezer's PR needs to be better are suggesting that he polish a turd. The basilisk and the way the basilisk was treated has implications about LW that are inherently negative, to the point where no amount of PR can fix it. The only way to fix it is for LW to treat the Basilisk differently.
I think that if Eliezer were to
people would stop seeing the basilisk as reflecting badly on LW. It might take some time to fade, but it would eventually go away. But Eliezer can't do that, because he does think that basilisk-like ideas can be dangerous, and this belief of his is feeding his inability to really deny the Basilisk.
This is true; nevertheless, good PR should still make things as least bad as possible. And indeed, you go on to make a suggestion as to how to do that (not even a bad one in my opinion).