Oracle(tm) e-Business Social 🎃Because the topic came up, I'm tempted to say something about it:
Roko's Basilisk is a spook and only works if you take it seriously :^)
Munin, Keeper of Lore@KitRedgrave I find myself unable to take it seriously at all. Such an entity would not need to resort to torture to bring about its goals - it could just rewrite preferences in the entities it simulates so they'd naturally 'want' to bring about what it wants.
@KitRedgrave That'd be a hell of a lot less work and be ever so much more efficient; you'd have to be pretty foolish to resort to torture in that instance.