The Murder Cult Started By A Banned Post
3/13/202630 min
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...
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
You said this place was steps from the water.
Speaker 10:02
We just haven't found the steps yet.
Speaker 00:04
How much did we save?
Speaker 10:06
Enough.
Speaker 00:07
Enough to get lost?
Speaker 10:10
Or you could book a stay with Hilton.
Speaker 00:12
Welcome to your oceanfront room, just steps from the water.
Speaker 10:16
The Hilton sale is on now. Book on hilton.com or the Hilton app and save up to 20% to get the stay you expected. When you want savings, not surprises, it matters where you stay. Hilton. For the stay.
AJ Gentile· Host0:29
[instrumental music] In July 2010, someone posted a thought experiment on a philosophy forum. It was called Roko's Basilisk. Within hours, people reported nightmares. Some had panic attacks. At least one person had a full nervous breakdown. The forum's founder was so disturbed, he deleted the post and banned all discussion of it. This just made things worse. This philosophical virus spread to all corners of the internet, so did the nightmares, the panic, and the nervous breakdowns. But here's the twist: as long as you don't learn about it, you're safe. But don't bother clicking away. Now that you know about Roko's Basilisk, you're already doomed. [instrumental music] Less Wrong was a community obsessed with thinking correctly. It was founded in 2009 by AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky for programmers,