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Comment by jaffa2 | Hacker News Reader

I never heard of this phrase before ( i had heard the concept , i think this is similar to the paperclip problem) but now in 2 days ive heard it twice here and on youtube. Rokokos basilisk.

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I think you two are confusing Roko's Basilisk (a thought experiment which some take seriously) and Rococo Basilisk (a joke shared between Elon and Grimes e.g.)

Interesting theory... Just whatever you do, don’t become a Zizian :)

Oh dang, is Arcade Fire going to turn us all into paperclips?

It's a completely nonsense argument and should be dismissed instantly.

I was so much more comfortable when I realized it's just Pascal's wager, and just as absurd.

I don't think it's absurd at all. I think it is a practical principle that shows up all the time in collective action problems. For example, suppose hypothetically there were a bunch of business owners who operated under an authoritarian government which they believed was bad for business, but felt obliged to publicly support it anyways because opposing it could lead to retaliation, thus increasing its ability to stay in power.

That’s a completely different situation though. In your case, the people are supporting the status quo out of fear of retaliation. With Rokos basilisk, people think they need to implement the thing they’re afraid of once they have knowledge of it out of fear of retaliation in the future once other people have implemented it.

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