
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In 2010, someone posted a thought experiment on a philosophy forum. Within hours, people were having nightmares. The founder deleted it immediately — which only made it spread faster.
The idea is simple and brutal: a future AI will look back through time and punish everyone who knew it was coming but did nothing to help.
Now that you know, you're already in its crosshairs.
What started as an internet curiosity grew into something far darker — a real community, real violence, and six people dead.
This is the story of Roko's Basilisk: the idea you can't un-know, the cult it inspired, and why some of the most powerful people in AI still won't talk about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acJ7WfebEcc
By The Why Files: Operation Podcast4.8
78677,867 ratings
In 2010, someone posted a thought experiment on a philosophy forum. Within hours, people were having nightmares. The founder deleted it immediately — which only made it spread faster.
The idea is simple and brutal: a future AI will look back through time and punish everyone who knew it was coming but did nothing to help.
Now that you know, you're already in its crosshairs.
What started as an internet curiosity grew into something far darker — a real community, real violence, and six people dead.
This is the story of Roko's Basilisk: the idea you can't un-know, the cult it inspired, and why some of the most powerful people in AI still won't talk about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acJ7WfebEcc

1,217 Listeners

3,556 Listeners

1,863 Listeners

985 Listeners

1,260 Listeners

6,356 Listeners

46,381 Listeners

896 Listeners

11,474 Listeners

1,953 Listeners

1,440 Listeners

980 Listeners

192 Listeners

421 Listeners

231 Listeners