gwern comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 3 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Unnamed 30 August 2010 05:37AM

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Comment author: gwern 06 September 2010 01:46:31PM 2 points [-]

Even obliviation seems weak: perhaps there are ways to be unobliviated ex-post.

Canonically, IIRC, obliviation can be broken by sufficient torture.

Comment author: Psy-Kosh 06 September 2010 05:06:12PM 1 point [-]

Canonically? Where?

The only thing resembling actual "unobliviating" that I can think of is Lockheart apparently slowly slightly recovering from his memory charm blowing up in his face via the broken wand. And that was after several years of ongoing treatment at St. Mungo's.

Comment author: lmnop 06 September 2010 05:31:11PM 3 points [-]

Bertha Jorkins. After she found out that the Crouch family was keeping Barty Crouch Jr. imprisoned in their house, Crouch Sr. put a Memory Charm on her strong enough to cause her permanent brain damage and forgetfulness. But Voldemort was able to break through it with torture.

Comment author: Psy-Kosh 06 September 2010 05:37:46PM 0 points [-]

Yeah, as I replied to Eliezer, I had no memory of that, appropriately enough. :P

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 06 September 2010 05:25:16PM 3 points [-]

Goblet of Fire, Bertha. We could possibly assume that her Obliviation was intended to be of the undoable sort to begin with, like what canon!Hermione did to her parents (so Bertha could still work on her job while she was at work, or regain the memories after the Tournament).

Comment author: Psy-Kosh 06 September 2010 05:35:48PM 1 point [-]

Huh. I had no memory of that (appropriately enough. :P) *goes to look that up* Huh.

Although according to this, she did suffer permanent brain damage from the memory charm itself, so not exactly what I'd call reversible, but yeah, point to gwern and you.