This "function" has a superficial similarity to unsafePerformIO but it is in fact a malevolent agent of chaos. It unpicks the seams of reality (and the IO monad) so that the normal rules no longer apply. It lulls you into thinking it is reasonable, but when you are not looking it stabs you in the back and aliases all of your mutable buffers. The carcass of many a seasoned Haskell programmer lie strewn at its feet.

Witness the trail of destruction:

• https://github.com/haskell/bytestring/commit/71c4b438c675aa360c79d79acc9a491e7bbc26e7
• https://github.com/haskell/bytestring/commit/210c656390ae617d9ee3b8bcff5c88dd17cef8da
• https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/3486
• https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/3487
• https://ghc.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/7270

Do not talk about "safe"! You do not know what is safe!

Yield not to its blasphemous call! Flee traveller! Flee or you will be corrupted and devoured!