gwern comments on Rationality Quotes December 2011 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 02 December 2011 06:01AM

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Comment author: gwern 08 December 2011 03:59:31AM 23 points [-]

'Tell me one last thing,' said Harry. 'Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?'

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry's ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

'Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?'

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Comment author: kateblu 09 December 2011 03:27:31AM 1 point [-]

I held off reading this series (my children being in their 30s and having no grandchildren) until several months ago when I realized that just because I didn't watch television or go to many movies, I should not be totally left out of modern culture. And so I started the first year. I could not put these books down and more or less inhaled all seven as fast as I could. What an excellent choice of quotations for this thread.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 31 December 2011 09:21:38PM -1 points [-]

'Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?'

Because... it's not real?

Just sayin'.

Comment author: [deleted] 20 November 2012 10:31:33AM 6 points [-]

What Harry should've asked isn't where the experience was taking place but whether the Dumbledore he was talking to was the model of Dumbledore in his head, which only knows things that Harry knows, or enough of the actual Dumbledore to know things that Harry doesn't know. That is, what's relevant isn't the location of the experience but the source of the information feeding into that experience. That would also be the relevant criterion for distinguishing between, for example, a message from God and a hallucination.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 01 January 2012 07:26:39PM 4 points [-]

That's like saying is depression real, or is it just happening inside the patient's head?

The correct answer is yes and yes.

Comment author: wedrifid 31 December 2011 10:06:03PM *  0 points [-]

'Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?'

Because... it's not real?

Within the perspective of a fantasy world it certainly can be. It isn't just Harry imagining things. Magic is involved.

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