orthonormal comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 2 - Less Wrong

13 Post author: dclayh 01 August 2010 10:58PM

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Comment author: Darmani 02 August 2010 12:22:06AM *  4 points [-]

What would the incentive to become a traitor before the battle of Chapter 33 be? Before Quirrell added the ability to switch sides, you'd just be helping your army (which you've already developed a bond with in the first battle), and therefore yourself, lose. I'd expect this to strongly outweigh the fun of being a spy.

I just Googled for "airsoft betrayal" and "paintball betrayal." I found no stories of similar events in either sport. (I did however find one person hypothetically talking about betrayal in laser tag, even though many/most systems ignore friendly fire.)

Comment author: orthonormal 02 August 2010 12:25:50AM 4 points [-]

I assumed that successful traitors could acquire individual Quirrell points faster than their loyal teammates, making for another Prisoner's Dilemma situation.

Comment author: Apprentice 02 August 2010 10:25:23PM 2 points [-]

I tried to assume that too but that doesn't seem to answer all the questions. The allocation of students to teams seems to be stable so presumably we have some sort of iterated PD going on. If you've betrayed your army in battle 4 then what happens between battle 4 and battle 5? Is there some sort of default assumption that everyone reverts back to being loyal?

Comment author: ShardPhoenix 02 August 2010 11:35:14AM 1 point [-]

This is almost certainly not socially viable though.

Comment author: taw 03 August 2010 12:39:33AM 1 point [-]

It would be truer if armies were based on houses - and as traitors are official Quirrell-endorsed part of the game, revenge is officially forbidden, and armies don't correspond to any social structure that inspires loyalty, it's doubtful that people would be terribly loyal.