You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

RichardKennaway comments on A few misconceptions surrounding Roko's basilisk - Less Wrong Discussion

39 Post author: RobbBB 05 October 2015 09:23PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (125)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 07 October 2015 11:58:47AM 2 points [-]

If a philosophical framework causes you to accept a basilisk, I view that as grounds for rejecting the framework, not for accepting the basilisk.

...

To state it yet another way: to me, the basilisk has the same status as an ontological argument for God. Even if I can't find the flaw in the argument, I'm confident in rejecting it anyway.

Despite the other things I've said here, that is my attitude as well. But I recognise that when I take that attitude, I am not solving the problem, only ignoring it. It may be perfectly sensible to ignore a problem, even a serious one (comparative advantage etc.). But dissolving a paradox is not achieved by clinging to one of the conflicting thoughts and ignoring the others. (Bullet-swallowing seems to consist of seizing onto the most novel one.) Eliminating the paradox requires showing where and how the thoughts went wrong.

Comment author: anon85 07 October 2015 05:29:14PM 1 point [-]

I agree that resolving paradoxes is an important intellectual exercise, and that I wouldn't be satisfied with simply ignoring an ontological argument (I'd want to find the flaw). But the best way to find such flaws is to discuss the ideas with others. At no point should one assign such a high probability to ideas like Roko's basilisk being actually sound that one refuses to discuss them with others.