Izeinwinter comments on Morality is Awesome - Less Wrong

86 [deleted] 06 January 2013 03:21PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (437)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: BerryPick6 11 January 2013 06:32:26PM 5 points [-]

Harry seems more awesome to me because he has a strong drive to get to the bottom of things-- not the same thing as intelligence, though it might be a trait that wouldn't be as interesting in an unintelligent character. (Or would it be? I can't think of an author who's tried to portray that.)

I would be fascinated to read a character who can Get Curious and think skeptically and reflectively about competing ideas, but is only of average intelligence.

Trying to model this character in my head has resulted in some sort of error though, so there's that...

Comment author: Izeinwinter 12 January 2013 09:56:58AM 2 points [-]

Those personality traits are not just correlated with intelligence, they almost certainly cause it - thinking is to some degree a skill set, and innate curiosity + introspection + skepticism would result in constant deliberate practice. So those traits + average intelligence can only coexist if the character has recently undergone a major personality change, or suffered brain damage.