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Pavitra comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 2 - Less Wrong
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The blood hypothesis turned out to be false.
Sorry, I forgot that ‘blood hypothesis’ has a specific meaning from Chapter 22.
Yes, the language did seem to imply that some Muggles are less magical than others. However, that's not quite the same as the hypothesis that some Wizards are more magical than others (edit: which I take to a necessary part of the official Blood Hypothesis). Indeed, if heterozygotic Muggles (as Petunia is likely to be) are more magical than homozygotic Muggles (as Michael is likely to be), then the language of Chapter 7 still works.
The genetic variance in magical ability (at least, independent from general intelligence, studiousness, etc.) is limited to at most three discrete levels. So strictly yes, it's possible that 'some Muggles are less magical than others', but there certainly isn't a spectrum of magicalness.
Agreed. (I've also made a small clarifying edit to my previous comment.)
Everything that you've said is correct; I was just confused about what ‘blood hypothesis’ meant until I reread Chapter 22.
Not true. Magic is heritable, but is a single gene thing, so that the pure blood concerns about mixing with muggles/squibs destroying magic are unfounded.