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THE SCARIEST THOUGHT EXPERIMENT EVER
It's called Roko's Basilisk. This thought experiment posits that the creation of an artificial intelligence will lead to an all-powerful, future artificial intelligence that will retroactively punish anyone who did not help bring it into existence. It's been described by many as the scariest thought experiment ever. The really scary part is that it is grounded in actual rational thought and game theory.
It has been associated with Pascal's wager, 17th centu ry French mathematician, philosopher, and theologian Blaise Pascal's argument that one should believe in God, even if God's existence cannot be proved or disproved through reason. Taken to what some would agree is a satirical extreme, it has also been referred to as "Believing in and searching for kryptonite on the off chance that Superman exists and wants to kill you."
Referencing Superman at this point may not seem odd to you, particularly if you recognized Roko's Basilisk as a part of...