What would you like to see in a book called "Roko's Basilisk"?

[reddragdiva]

I would like your assistance in the eternal and vital work of increasing existential risk.

Specifically: I've written a surprisingly popular book about why bitcoins and blockchains are trash. I basically have a second part-time job now as a finance journalist, which supplies a bit of welcome cash.

But sales are dropping off - so it's time to write the next one.

The options are:

1. The Good, The Bad and the Blockchain: For A Few Bitcoins More - the obvious sequel. I have a blog full of material to adapt. It won't be as incisive or impactful as the first one, but it should sell at least a few copies.

2. Roko's Basilisk: A Savage Journey to the Dark Heart of the Transhumanist Dream.

I wanted to ask what you would like to see in that second one. That's one hell of a subtitle, but never shrink from audacity after all.

If you saw a book of that title and subtitle:

• what would you expect to see in it?
• what would you really like to see explained in it?
• what “take that you shitheads” swipes would you be delighted to see someone finally writing up?

I should point out - this may have slight commercial prospects. Apart from the mention of the Basilisk on Silicon Valley, Tom Chivers (the science journalist) is writing one about these people too, through a real publisher. We've spoken about the topic, and basically I think both books will promote each other - one is a weirdness, two is a Thing.

Comments

[siderea]

how this all arises out of Yudkoswky's personal idiosyncratic weirdness

I find eccentricity-shaming odious, myself, and little drops my opinion of a journalist (or "journalist") faster. If he's done something actually morally wrong, of course, have at it.

[reddragdiva]

It's pretty relevant when he's got a 501(c)3 for it taking somewhere over a million dollars a year. At that point, talking about this stuff is in the public interest.

But essentially, the entire philosophical edifice of the Sequences, and the weird ideas that if you look sideways add up to Roko's basilisk, entirely stem from the premise "I want to live forever, an emulation running in a supercomputer counts, how do I get there?"