Alistair Young @cerebrate@schelling.pt

The laws of physics? What are you, a narc?

@dashdsrdash

I like the concept, but given the RW history of the banned weapons list just happening to double as a list of weapons which aren't useful (to major military powers), I have some doubts as to its likelihood under most circumstances.

(Now, in a _Traveller_/_Dune_-like scenario where the local Empire permits limited wars among its subunits - while reserving some big exceptions for itself, natch - the rules are on!)

@cinebox

Uranium metal rather than ore? Pelletized or something?

Not a whole lot. Lumps of non-enriched uranium are basically meh, but if you bang it around enough the powder should not be breathed and may spontaneously catch fire as metal powders often do.

And the oxide offers opportunities for heavy metal poisoning, so don't lick it. And don't drop it on you, it's heavy.

Radioactivity-wise, basically a nothingburger. I'd sleep on it.

@maxthefox @cstross @nyrath

On the latter: the thought experiment doesn't specify how far into the future the acausal blackmailer is. Could be a gigayear. Could be next Tuesday.

Or what it is, for that matter. Could be me with a promise to stab everyone next Tuesday who doesn't send me a Twinkie, if people were sufficiently intimidatable to be blackmailable by the mere idea of me in the candy store with the carving knife.

@maxthefox @cstross @nyrath

On the former: that's not unique to RB. There's nothing unique about acausal vs. regular blackmail that prevents multiple blackmailers wanting you to do contradictory things. It just reduces to the usual multiple-blackmail case: to wit, you're screwed.

(Fortunately, not negotiating with terrorists wins this case too.)

@maxthefox @cstross @nyrath

The answer, of course, is simple. Precommit to not negotiating with terrorists, and genuinely mean it, such that any possible sufficiently you-like emulation must also know that.

Then anyone capable of blackmailing you by torturing a copy of you will know that it's futile, and, if otherwise rational, not bother.

(Alternate options include becoming a sociopath or learning to truly, deeply, hate yourself and anyone else whose pain might otherwise affect you.)

@maxthefox @cstross @nyrath

Your perspective doesn't need to transfer to the simulation. All you need to assume is that you can empathize/sympathize with entities like yourself, and as such, will go to some effort to prevent the entity most like yourself from being hurt.

(This may also include the words "and once I do this for you, you're gonna need to find a new con[tractor|sultant]".)

For anyone wondering why exactly I implemented the DEAR GOD HOW COULD ANYONE THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA thing despite that?

My professional ethics are very simple. If you ask for a dangerous or illegal thing, that I won't do. But if what you ask for is merely a bloody stupid thing, I will tell you that it is a bloody stupid thing and why, and if you insist on getting it anyway, that your request for a bloody stupid thing against my better judgment is on the record.

Then it's all on you, bro.