"You couldn't get me to do something I didn't know how to do like that. I'm not sure you could get me to stop thinking privately altogether - you could load me up with other things to think about in case that one slipped - but you could order me to think publicly for sure."
"I think privately by thinking about being in my tree; nobody can go in my tree if I don't let them. You cannot forbid me to think about that except indirectly you can try to crowd it out with something else. But you can order me to also think about not being in my tree and get my thoughts that way. It'd amount to the same thing; I can't actually keep a secret you really want to have."
"Might interfere with your oath if you lost the Silmaril somehow."
'Right now I have the Silmaril. I am not constrained to not destroy any capabilities that I'd need if it were taken again, or I couldn't kill myself even once I've found a way, right? Come to think of it, I think I can even order you to order me not to demand your help retrieving it again if it's stolen again, right now it's mine, the Oath has nothing to say..."
"You probably want something like 'order me the following: never give me orders intended to forcibly secure my help retrieving the Silmaril'."
"No, your previous order will kick back in after I've completed this one as an exception. Recency takes precedence where there's conflict but it doesn't overwrite old orders. There are more of them?"
The Oath doesn't oblige me to attack the Enemy right now because there'd be no hope at all of success, you can't be bound to make attempts guaranteed not to work. If I saw an avenue to successfully attack the Enemy I'd be bound to it, but I'd also want to do it because he needs to be stopped."
"Oh. Doesn't that mean he can make you attack anyone who doesn't like you enough to let you have a Silmaril if he just gives them one?"
"How do you retain possession of a Silmaril after you surrender?"
"I am not sure. Perhaps they'd permit me to jump with it into a live volcano, or something in that vein. Perhaps they'd take it away once I surrendered, and then I'd be in horrible agony but no one else would have been hurt. Even if I knew they'd take it away when I surrendered, while it was in my hands I'd have fully free choice, I could decide to surrender even anticipating that."
Yep. "I think our design causes extremely bad incentives but it never wedges us in a way that's in principle insoluble."
"I - I wandered around yesterday and I don't have the impression anybody wants to talk to me."