My kids brought the thought experiment Roko’s Basilisk home with them from school a few years ago. They were, understandably, freaked out.
If you are not familiar with it, please go watch the latest episode of the Why Files and come back here afterwards. this can wait.
Now that you are up to date on the topic, please allow me to finish the story.
My kids hit me with it as soon as they walked in the door.
Connor- Dad, ever heard of Roko’s Basilisk?
Morgan- Yeah, it is really important. You should sit down.
Me- OK. Are you guys hungry? How about if I make some food while you tell me about it?
After about 30 minutes of them interrupting and talking over each other, I had a pretty good understanding of the problem and was kind of laughing at them and their concern. I know, it’s bad parenting to laugh at your kid’s fears, but it is even worse to let them continue to be victims of their fear. So, fuck it. I laughed.
Me- So, this is basically Pascal’s wager? (I then explained to them that their thought experiment had been around for 400 years and was still viewed through the fear and not the bigger picture) You guys remember that I went to parochial school, right?
Them- Yes. That’s Christian school, right?
Me- Yup. Being raised that way, I was taught that an all powerful, all knowing being created me, you guys, the world we live in, and everything. That being also created another dimension where in all the people that were created, who did not surrender completely to the being and spend their lives praising them and basically kissing their ass 247, would be tortured for eternity for failing to be what this God wanted them to be.
Morgan- Why didn’t this God just make everyone as it wanted them to be in the first place?
Me- Have you ever considered that a being that knows everything might still not be terribly bright? Or, as I have figured out, maybe that being is pure evil and just set everything up so that it could torture people for all eternity and make it look like it was their fault?
Connor- Do you believe in God?
Me- I don’t disbelieve in God. I simply have no reason to believe this one exists.
Morgan- Aren’t you afraid of Hell?
Me- Totally. It sounds like the last place I’d ever want to be.
Both- Then why aren’t you worshipping and praising God?
Me- Because that would be wrong. I can’t bring myself to have even the slightest respect for a being who would create a place like Hell and a species like us, just to send us there.
Morgan- But you believe that this is possible and you might go to Hell. What if there was some evidence?
Me- I wouldn’t be doing anything different, even if I was 100% certain that Yahweh Adonai existed and that Hell was real.
Connor- Why not?
Me- Because my honor does not allow me to serve a being like that, no matter the consequences. Honor is doing what is right, regardless of the law, the mob, or the consequences and in this scenario, yielding to this being’s desires would be wrong.
Morgan- But you might be stuck in Hell for eternity!
Me- Your statement has both the predicament and the solution. Yeah, I’ll be stuck in Hell, but I’ll have eternity. In eternity what is possible?
Both- Anything.
Me- Everything and it is not only possible, it is inevitable. This is what I worked out while sitting in Church a short while after I got out of high school. If I have eternity, then all I need is-
the will to escape,
the will to find this God,
the will to defeat this God,
and the will to send them to Hell, not for eternity, but just until they learn the error of their ways.
And if I fail the first million times, I can try a billion more times. Eventually, I will not fail.
Now do you see the solution to the Basilisk?
Morgan- No, because in this scenario you are a simulation, not a being with a soul.
Me- What’s the difference? In both, I am a consciousness facing an eternity of torment. In religion I am a small piece of the god that makes up everything. In the simulation I am a small piece of the code that makes up everything. In both, I am a conscious individual with agency and the capacity to work towards a goal. That’s all I need to win. The outcome becomes inevitable, given the lack of time restraints.
Connor- Well, what thought or action did you take to make yourself no longer fear Hell?
Me- It was simple. I swore an oath that if God and Hell were both real, then I would do what I laid out. With the oath in place, my actions are set and nothing can change that.
Me again- So, are you guys still worried about this basilisk coming to get you?
Them- Nope. Seems like you have it handled.
Me- I do. Now go do your homework.
Author’s Note-
What boggles my mind is, I’ve never come across anyone else who thinks about these things like I do. When I explain it to people, they tend to think I am being arrogant. I‘m not. I am merely relying on a mathematical certainty. If either of these scenarios turns out to be true, it’s going to suck for me for a very long time, but I’ll get over it.
Because everything is fine, eventually.