I didn't think Failed Utopia #4-2 was "failed" either
It's "failed" in the sense that it could have been a whole lot better than it was. As I said when it was first posted:
Making me the girl of my dreams? I'm currently unattached, so that sounds pretty good. Separating me from the social context I'm currently in? I'll adjust, although this would certainly upset most people. Taking away my video games and Magic cards? Over my dead body!
Haven't read anything in the Optimalverse.
But Failed Utopia 4-2 is very, very successful in a 'Victory -- At Any Cost!!!!' way and pretty unsuccessful compared to something more incremental in the less important stuff.
So Eliezer said in his March 1st HPMOR progress report:
So I read that and it was certainly very much worth reading - thanks for the recommendation! Obviously, the following contains spoilers.
I'm confused about how the story is supposed to be "terrifying". I rarely find any fiction scary, but I suspect that this is about something else: I didn't think Failed Utopia #4-2 was "failed" either and in Three Worlds Collide, I thought the choice of the "Normal" ending made a lot more sense than choosing the "True" ending. The Optimalverse seems to me a fantastically fortunate universe, pretty much the best universe mammals could ever hope to end up in, and I honestly don't see how it is a horror novel, at all.
So, apparently there's something I'm not getting. Something that makes an individual's hard-to-define "free choice" more valuable than her much-easier-to-define happiness. Something like a paranoid schizophrenic's right not to be treated,
So I'd like the dumb version please. What's terrifying about the Optimalverse?