Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Sword of Good - Less Wrong

85 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 12:53AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 10:46:52PM 1 point [-]

Ba gur bgure unaq, jura Uvebh xvyyrq Qbys ng gur raq, ur jnfa'g znxvat n zvfgnxr (ubjrire, V fgvyy guvax vg jnf zheqre).

I perceive that you have not yet learned to use the logic of the Phoenix.

Comment author: eirenicon 04 September 2009 12:42:17AM 3 points [-]

Care to elaborate on that rather cryptic remark?

Comment author: thomblake 04 September 2009 01:18:11PM 1 point [-]
Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 September 2009 08:11:41PM 3 points [-]

No, this logic of the Phoenix. What makes you think cutting off someone's head is murder?

"He died, but you have taught me a new meaning for 'is dead'." (From the same book.)

Comment author: TobyBartels 09 January 2011 09:28:18AM 2 points [-]

I figured that Vhazhar really wouldn't be able to save Dolf. That's why it's a sacrifice.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 04 September 2009 11:05:37PM 2 points [-]

What makes you think cutting off someone's head is murder?

Not every decapitation is murder, but "the wizard stopped, ceased to exist...as something seemed to flow away" is suggestive.

Comment author: Psy-Kosh 05 September 2009 12:41:48AM 1 point [-]

I was thinking the same thing. The way Eliezer wrote that bit seemed to make it clear that something rather more than mere decapitation occurred there.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 05 September 2009 03:04:13AM 1 point [-]

Hm, so it does. Well, if Hirou had no way of knowing that, then it's manslaughter at worst.

Comment author: Psy-Kosh 05 September 2009 05:33:25AM 4 points [-]

Though, actually spelling it out directly does end up sounding funny. "Well... I don't know that cutting off his head with this sword would kill him... I mean, is it really reasonable for me to have expected that?" :)

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 05 September 2009 05:34:52AM 0 points [-]

(Actually, I thought I'd deleted the "ceased to exist" phrase. I'll go ahead and take it out.)