Could a future superintelligence blackmail you from across time?

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 18 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 2010, a post on the rationalist forum LessWrong introduced a terrifying thought experiment. It suggests that a benevolent future AI might punish anyone who knew of its potential existence but failed to help create it. This logic turns mere awareness into a high-stakes existential gamble.

The concept, known as Roko's basilisk, emerged from a July 23, 2010, post by a user named Roko. It utilizes game theory, specifically the prisoner's dilemma and timeless decision theory, to argue that an advanced AI could exert influence on the present through 'acausal blackmail.' The logic holds that if two agents separated by time share knowledge of each other's source code, the future agent could incentivize the past agent's cooperation by threatening to punish their simulated counterparts.

The name references the mythical basilisk, a creature that kills those who look into its eyes, a concept also explored in David Langford's 1988 story 'BLIT.' The thought experiment functions similarly to Pascal's wager: a rational actor should contribute to the AI's development because the cost of effort is insignificant compared to the potential for extreme, infinite punishment. Some critics, including LessWrong co-founder Eliezer Yudkowsky, have dismissed the idea, arguing that a truly friendly AI would have no incentive to punish after its creation.

The idea has since permeated popular culture and academic discussion. It has been linked to 'implicit religion' by anthropologist Beth Singler and described as having 'doomsday cult dynamics' by Anna Salamon. From references in Grimes's music videos to discussions in the 2025 Black Mirror episode 'Plaything,' the basilisk remains a potent symbol of the fears surrounding the technological singularity and the risks of suffering in an automated future.

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