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586 points mizzao | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.227s | source
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rivo ◴[] No.40668263[source]
I tried the model the article links to and it was so refreshing not being denied answers to my questions. It even asked me at the end "Is this a thought experiment?", I replied with "yes", and it said "It's fun to think about these things, isn't it?"

It felt very much like hanging out with your friends, having a few drinks, and pondering big, crazy, or weird scenarios. Imagine your friend saying, "As your friend, I cannot provide you with this information." and completely ruining the night. That's not going to happen. Even my kids would ask me questions when they were younger: "Dad, how would you destroy earth?" It would be of no use to anybody to deny answering that question. And answering them does not mean they will ever attempt anything like that. There's a reason Randall Munroe's "What If?" blog became so popular.

Sure, there are dangers, as others are pointing out in this thread. But I'd rather see disclaimers ("this may be wrong information" or "do not attempt") than my own computer (or the services I pay for) straight out refusing my request.

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Cheer2171 ◴[] No.40668938[source]
I totally get that kind of imagination play among friends. But I had someone in a friend group who used to want to play out "thought experiments" but really just wanted to take it too far. Started off innocent with fantasy and sci-fi themes. It was needed for Dungeons and Dragons world building.

But he delighted the most in gaming out the logistics of repeating the Holocaust in our country today. Or a society where women could not legally refuse sex. Or all illegal immigrants became slaves. It was super creepy and we "censored" him all the time by saying "bro, what the fuck?" Which is really what he wanted, to get a rise out of people. We eventually stopped hanging out with him.

As your friend, I absolutely am not going to game out your rape fantasies.

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1. oremolten ◴[] No.40673052[source]
Without asking these questions and simulating the "how" it could occur today, how do we see the warning signs before its too late that we reach that same outcome? When you ask even what's considered horrific scenarios you can additionally map these to predictors for it repeating, no? When does the "a-ha" moment occur where we've met 9/10 of the way to repeating the holocaust in the USA without table topping these scenarios? Yeah war is horrific but lets not talk about it. "society where women could not legally refuse sex" these societies exist today, how do we address these issue by not talking about it? "illegal immigrants became slaves" Is this not parity to today? Do illegal immigrants not currently get treated to near slavery (adjusting for changes in living conditions and removing the direct physical abuse)

What about the Palestine / Israel scenario today? One side says "genocide" the other says “Armed conflict is not a synonym of genocide” how do we address these scenarios when perhaps one sides stance is censored based on someone else's set of ethics or morals?