Roko's Basilisk (Read Warning In Post First)

[Rev. Rye]

And I think continuity (or at least as far as Planck's length allows!) plays a good role in the identity of self. When simulation/cloning occurs, there is a split there between the two selves so that one self goes along its own continuous path while the other on its own different continuous path in life. So they're not only two different bodies and brains, but reasonably two different selves.

Which is a point made in the second episode that used cookies as a major plot point, U.S.S. Callister. Daly (or as I liked to call him, Captain Todd, for reasons that should be obvious to any Breaking Bad fans watching) cloned the protagonist of the episode and put the clone in her computer game. The clone finds out pretty damn quick that Daly's a monster who can torture people into taking part of his Star Trek fantasies, but the original knows nothing about the full extent of his fucked-up-ness, and her cookie only tells her the bare minimum of what's going on, so there's a distinct possibility that when Daly's brain is wiped at the end of the episode and he's pretty much dead, she'll probably still mourn him as her cookie (and those of her coworkers) celebrates their freedom.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that an AI as intelligent as that one should see no rational reason to torture simulated copies of beings who won't be affected by the torture in any tangible way. I think.

Yeah, the big question with such a plan: why would it even do such a thing? What would even be the point? Is it the sort of petty being who'd create voodoo dolls and stick pins in them in the hopes that someone who doesn't even know he exists will be hurt?