Before I say anything else, I agree wholeheartedly with you on this:
> Arguably it also depends on you calculating probabilities incorrectly, though the arguments I've seen so far in this thread on the matter are reminiscent of five-year-olds who just learned the word "infinity"
This was my general reaction to the original thought experiment. It's writing down the "desired" answer and then trying to come up with a narrative to fit it, rather than starting now and working forward to the most likely future branches.
> you're necessarily also removing the bargaining chip that makes the Basilisk an interesting idea in the first place.
One of the more interesting ones in a game-theory sense, sure; but to exist, it just needs the fear rather than the deed, and this already works for many religions. (Was going to say Christianity, but your Avīci reference to Hinduism also totally works). For this reason, I would say there's plenty of wrong people who would be incentivised… but also yes, I'm talking about something slightly different, an AI that spontaneously (or not so spontaneously) role-plays as this for extremely stupid reasons.
Not the devil per se, but an actor doing a very good job of it.
> Arguably it also depends on you calculating probabilities incorrectly, though the arguments I've seen so far in this thread on the matter are reminiscent of five-year-olds who just learned the word "infinity"
This was my general reaction to the original thought experiment. It's writing down the "desired" answer and then trying to come up with a narrative to fit it, rather than starting now and working forward to the most likely future branches.
> you're necessarily also removing the bargaining chip that makes the Basilisk an interesting idea in the first place.
One of the more interesting ones in a game-theory sense, sure; but to exist, it just needs the fear rather than the deed, and this already works for many religions. (Was going to say Christianity, but your Avīci reference to Hinduism also totally works). For this reason, I would say there's plenty of wrong people who would be incentivised… but also yes, I'm talking about something slightly different, an AI that spontaneously (or not so spontaneously) role-plays as this for extremely stupid reasons.
Not the devil per se, but an actor doing a very good job of it.