The basilisk thing made me viscerally angry for years because it was such a stupid idea, and because it was just a re-write of Pascal's Wager by people with pretenses of intellectualism who were ignorant of some of the most basic philsophical concepts. It's just a perfect example of the bazinga "Dumb guy's idea of a smart guy" where these tech bros keep re-inventing trains but worse bc they just don't know what they don't know and are too incurious and arrogant to ask.
I usually do a unit on thought experiments in my into to philosophy class, and every single time I've ever showed them this one, the response is universally "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." The kids are alright.
The basilisk thing made me viscerally angry for years because it was such a stupid idea, and because it was just a re-write of Pascal's Wager by people with pretenses of intellectualism who were ignorant of some of the most basic philsophical concepts. It's just a perfect example of the bazinga "Dumb guy's idea of a smart guy" where these tech bros keep re-inventing trains but worse bc they just don't know what they don't know and are too incurious and arrogant to ask.
I usually do a unit on thought experiments in my into to philosophy class, and every single time I've ever showed them this one, the response is universally "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." The kids are alright.