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purpleposeidon comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 20, chapter 90 - Less Wrong
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This has got me quite convinced that Fred and Fred is going to happen. They are probably connected magically, rather than acoustically, so they might be able to communicate across time. This setup might create the time beacon Harry was wanting.
Or, maybe their connection does not link through time. Send a pair of Weasleys back in time. You now have 4 Weasleys. Wait not-quite-an-hour, and then send 4 Weasleys back in time… 4 Weasleys is twice the number of Weasleys. Are N Weasleys N/2 times as smart as 2 Weasleys? No. It is much more interesting if it is the connections that matter. HE is the Weasley hivemind.
There was an off-the-cuff line back in Ch25:
I wonder if there is something more to a magical twin connection, that may have even caused problems (confusing the source of magic?), or if this was just a comment on how dark/backwards things were in the old days.
I think it was mostly something along the lines of "there's no point, you're just going to have two of the same person."
One does not customarily kill newborn children merely because they're "unnecessary".
Preislamic arabs were infamous for that kind of post-birth birth control. Romans also practiced the same thing: a roman had the right and privilege to kill his descent whenever and however he saw fit. So, it's customary when it's customary.
... Yes?
Just because it was "done in the old days" doesn't mean it's the right thing to do...
I think the issue is more that it's not a very compelling reason to kill a newborn even by ancient standards.
I suspect it's more to do with two identically-minded people being fundamentally creepy and/or dangerous.
If everyone else ultimately acts primarily in their own self interest, but identically minded twins value each other equally to themselves and always cooperate, and see themselves as an in-group of two to which everyone else is an out-group (which may be a natural result of being able to compare all those different-from-you people to someone who's completely the same as you,) then they might be a nuisance ranging to a major hazard to the rest of society.
If Fred and George's mischief making is typical for wizarding twins, it would explain why ancient society wanted fewer of them.
Upvoted because, although I'm about 99.9% sure it's not remotely what Eliezer has in mind, it's a lovely idea.