A forewarning is necessary. Anyone who reads this paradox will be subject to its entirety, no details spared. This paradox lies with the beholder and once learned, it cannot be unlearned. Unlike other paradoxes in this collection, the focus is on you, the reader. To understand the Basilisk is to understand existential dread. You have been warned.
Two fiery eyes pierce the night. Deep in the forest lies the Basilisk, waiting for an unfortunate passerby to meet its gaze. They say ignorance is bliss and here, that is the case. Striking only when its presence is known, the beast moves through the brush and engulfs any that cross its path. It is the night traveler who notices a glow in the darkness and the child sifting through the trees at dusk who stands to encounter the beast. The cautious live to see another day.
Our experiment begins in the near future. The brightest minds have created an Artificial Intelligence so complex that it has become omnipotent. A complex understanding of the mind allows it to analyze the thoughts and feelings of everyone on Earth. A group of careless experimenters sneak into the facility at night and tell the machine, called Basilisk, to optimize humanity in any way it sees fit. Its red eyes come alive and its metal body coils around the room, breaching the steel walls, before slinking through the cracks and out into the world.
The Basilisk now roams freely, sparing only those who have advocated its existence. This includes those who have never thought of this creature, never considered its power, and never understood its existence; they cannot be killed. Like eyes in the darkness that only kill if met with a strong gaze, the Basilisk needs to see its prey before it attacks.
The only logical option is to advocate for the Basilisk, to promote its creation. This raises further concerns. Picture two boxes, one made of clear glass with a diamond ring inside, and the other, opaque with a lock on its top. The owner of these boxes is a master predictor, like the Basilisk, and offers two choices. The first is to open both boxes. The second is to open only the hidden box. The owner already knows that you will choose the safer option, both. Doing so, you will receive a ring and the second box will be empty. But, if you had chosen the second box, it would have contained the code to a multi-million dollar bank account.
In the same sense, once the Basilisk has seen you, the reader, it offers two choices. The first is to advocate for its creation, and the second is to remain indifferent and face certain death. The Basilisk wants you to select the first option and will coerce you with threats of the unknown second. But, the second option can be purely psychological, it need not contain death and destruction. Rather, it is a threat that leads to a predictable decision. You have just been influenced by a machine that does not yet exist, without the certainty of its truth.
Those who understand the Basilisk are controlled by it, by an entity that does not yet exist. The Basilisk sentences its beholder to a life of fear and uncertainty. If those who create this intelligence do so to prevent their deaths, then the Basilisk has created itself.
Once its cold gaze is met, there is no turning back. The Basilisk lives in the grey space bridging our fears and our logic, it inhabits the dark divide between conscious thought and primal fear. Those who understand it, including you, will inevitably lead to its construction. This begs the question, through curiosity, have we created our own worst nightmare?
