I may have just had a dangerous thought.

10:1 it is not as dangerous as you think and 1:1 it's common enough to be on Wikipedia.

I like the idea of asking for advice on possible dangerous ideas.

But I'd like to improve on the means: Just inviting arbitrary private communication isn't exactly save. Now OK, LW isn't really arbitrary, but telling 7 people replying on an open post... If the idea really were dangerous... Framing the idea in such a way at least causes curiousity and I had to restrain myself a bit to not immediately jump to the "Send message" button.

A solution could involve trusted rationality counselors. A proxy for this on LW could be contributors with high karma and and high positive rating.

ADDED: I think a wiki page "Rationality counseling" might be a good idea.

*volunteers

Also, I am in general for moving as much stuff from open thread to discussion as possible, but this is one of the few cases that I think open thread would have been more appropriate. Not a big deal though.

Hey, I've listened to a lot of ideas labelled "dangerous", some of which were labeled "extremely dangerous". Haven't gone crazy yet.

I'd definitely like to discuss it with you privately, if only to compare your idea to what I already know.

It seems to me that the only real dangerous 'idea' here is this persistent promotion of the notion of dangerous ideas. Either way, you can message me if you want, I don't believe in most of the common transhumanist nonsense here, nor do I think that some homebrew decision theories based on the notion that you can alter the way mathematics work, including mathematics that been already computed by the world and made known to the agent, are of such cosmic relevance.

Thank you for letting us know. Don't tell me your idea:).

I'm not aware of a protocol for this sort of thing either.

I volunteer to give you honest feedback.

Generally err on the side of caution. I don't know if we have aprocedure for this though...

Can you be slightly more specific on the context? Like, at least the vague fields of study it might apply to? This would allow us to make an informed decision.

Tell me your idea.

Should I be limiting this to a certain amount of people? I think like seven already know.

You can PM me with the details.

Feel free to send me a personal message.

message it to me.

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How can I distinguish dangerous thoughts from magical thinking? In my experience, my thoughts alone have no effect whatsoever on the physical world. In other words, actions have consequences but thoughts not acted upon are undetectable by others.

(Exception: brain scanning, where other people are observing what's happening inside my brain, and even then it's a really coarse scan.)

(Non-exception: observing quantum-random events like Geiger counter beeps. My thoughts have no discernible effect on these.)

If your theory is right, that (entity/force AB) is able to affect my physical world here, then I would expect other opportunities/consequences. For example, there would be ways to persuade (entity/force AB) to provide beneficial, immediately observable consequences. Any ideas for positive, non-dangerous ways to test your theory?

If I misread the tone of your question, and you're writing about something that's dangerous to you personally for conventional reasons, then best of luck with your exciting life-style.

Have you googled to see if your idea is original?

There is very little new under the sun.

But I understand your reticence. I'm often struck by how unserious terrorists are. Ooooh, go booom! Really? That's the best they can come up with? I think death and destruction is pretty easy. I'm curious if I'm wrong (and just curious in general), but I don't want to be giving anyone else any ideas, even if the ideas are already out there.

I'd be interested in hearing your dangerous idea.

Feel free to message me.