As far as I can tell from my limited research, it appears to be a combination of the SCP Foundation’s “Object Classes” with a hypothetical new object class “Roko” which I believe to be named for an LW user who appears to no longer exist, but made a post at some point (the best I can establish is that it had to be prior to December 2010), presenting some idea which later came to be called a “basilisk”, because the very knowledge of it was judged by some to be potentially harmful and unsettling. The post was deleted, although it appears to be possible to find copies of it or at least the basic idea if one cares enough.
So presumably the containment protocol for Object Class: Roko is simply to destroy the offending information and maybe take steps to prevent a recurrence? I’m mostly guessing, anyone who actually knows this context firsthand want to comment on whether my guess is close?
As far as I can tell from my limited research, it appears to be a combination of the SCP Foundation’s “Object Classes” with a hypothetical new object class “Roko” which I believe to be named for an LW user who appears to no longer exist
This seems likely. The user in question was a top contributor and made a lot of creative and speculative posts along similar lines.
but made a post at some point (the best I can establish is that it had to be prior to December 2010), presenting some idea which later came to be called a “basilisk”, because the very knowledge of it was judged by some to be potentially harmful and unsettling.
More precisely he made a post presenting a different clever game-theoretic solution which could, among other things, be used to counter the thing that became called a “basilisk”.
Though it helps the joke to know that the response to Roko’s post and its censorship was huge and blew the entire incident way out of proportion. Several things happened, included Roko leaving the site (a top 10 contributor at the time) and deleting all his posts and comments. And there was a post by a guy who threatened to raise existential risk by 0.0001% everytime a Lesswrong post in censored, which as some people pointed out was equivalent to killing ~6,000 people. Which, at the same time as causing a huge uproar on the site, actually helped to spread the basilisk. Eliezer and Alicorn both think it’s a dangerous idea, and say that people with OCD tendencies are especially at risk. Personally it doesn’t bother me, but I can see how it could mess some people up. I will say it has little practical value, so my advice is that it’s not really worth the effort to track it down.
So yes, Object Class: Roko Containment Protocol is deletion, actively preventing a resurfacing, and has the SCP connotations of a large-scale mobilization of resources to stop a potential disaster.
As far as I can tell from my limited research, it appears to be a combination of the SCP Foundation’s “Object Classes” with a hypothetical new object class “Roko” which I believe to be named for an LW user who appears to no longer exist, but made a post at some point (the best I can establish is that it had to be prior to December 2010), presenting some idea which later came to be called a “basilisk”, because the very knowledge of it was judged by some to be potentially harmful and unsettling. The post was deleted, although it appears to be possible to find copies of it or at least the basic idea if one cares enough.
So presumably the containment protocol for Object Class: Roko is simply to destroy the offending information and maybe take steps to prevent a recurrence? I’m mostly guessing, anyone who actually knows this context firsthand want to comment on whether my guess is close?
This seems likely. The user in question was a top contributor and made a lot of creative and speculative posts along similar lines.
More precisely he made a post presenting a different clever game-theoretic solution which could, among other things, be used to counter the thing that became called a “basilisk”.
Spot on.
Edit: Downvotes? Please explain.
Spot on.
Though it helps the joke to know that the response to Roko’s post and its censorship was huge and blew the entire incident way out of proportion. Several things happened, included Roko leaving the site (a top 10 contributor at the time) and deleting all his posts and comments. And there was a post by a guy who threatened to raise existential risk by 0.0001% everytime a Lesswrong post in censored, which as some people pointed out was equivalent to killing ~6,000 people. Which, at the same time as causing a huge uproar on the site, actually helped to spread the basilisk. Eliezer and Alicorn both think it’s a dangerous idea, and say that people with OCD tendencies are especially at risk. Personally it doesn’t bother me, but I can see how it could mess some people up. I will say it has little practical value, so my advice is that it’s not really worth the effort to track it down.
So yes, Object Class: Roko Containment Protocol is deletion, actively preventing a resurfacing, and has the SCP connotations of a large-scale mobilization of resources to stop a potential disaster.