Word.ws English Dictionary

Roko's basilisk

Roko's basilisk proper noun: a thought experiment which posits a hypothetical, otherwise benevolent artificial intelligence of the future that would have an incentive to torture anyone who, having considered the possibility of its existence, had not helped bring about its existence.

Proper noun

Roko's basilisk

  1. A thought experiment which posits a hypothetical, otherwise benevolent artificial intelligence of the future that would have an incentive to torture anyone who, having considered the possibility of its existence, had not helped bring about its existence.
    • Roko's Basilisk closely resembles traditional religious belief systems, merely replacing the role of God with a super-AI instead.2020, Griffin Kao, Jessica Hong, Michael Perusse, Weizhen Sheng, Turning Silicon into Gold, Springer (Apress), page 177
    • Roko's Basilisk is a thought experiment about the potential risks involved in developing so-called true artificial intelligence. The premise is that an all-powerful artificial super-intelligence could retroactively punish those who did not help bring about its existence. Roko's Basilisk resembles a...2021, Richard Heimann, Doing AI, BenBella Books (Matt Holt Books), page 137

Origin of Roko's basilisk

Proposed as a transhumanist thought experiment in 2010 by user Roko on the LessWrong Internet discussion forum. According to LessWrong, discussion of Roko's basilisk was banned from the forum for several years as part of a general policy against spreading potential information hazards. This in fact drew further attention to the topic, and other websites began sharing information about it.

Questions about Roko's basilisk

What does Roko's basilisk mean?
Roko's basilisk means a thought experiment which posits a hypothetical, otherwise benevolent artificial intelligence of the future that would have an incentive to torture anyone who, having considered the possibility of its existence, had not helped bring about its existence.
What part of speech is Roko's basilisk?
Roko's basilisk is a proper noun.

Words near Roko's basilisk in the dictionary

  1. rokkakus
  2. Rokkatru
  3. ROKMC
  4. ROKN
  5. roko
  6. Roko's basilisk
  7. rokos
  8. Rokossovsky
  9. Rokossowski
  10. roks
  11. rokurokubi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Roko's basilisk (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Roko's basilisk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/roko%27s_basilisk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.