wedrifid comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 22, chapter 93 - Less Wrong

5 [deleted] 06 July 2013 03:02AM

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Comment author: wedrifid 06 July 2013 04:36:52PM 17 points [-]

Eliezer has said that Hermione hasn't been powered up as much as other characters because she was already so great in canon.

And went so far as to observe that if Hermione were to be upgraded in the same way that Harry, Quirell and Draco had been upgraded then she would surpass the intellectual capabilities of the author himself, and his ability to emulate.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 06 July 2013 10:26:07PM 12 points [-]

It's possible to write about characters cleverer than oneself by two means I can think of.

  1. having unlimited time to think about what your character arrives at in an instant

  2. getting multiple people to help with the above.

Comment author: benelliott 07 July 2013 02:18:23AM 5 points [-]

But at some point your character is going to think about something for more than an instant (if they don't then I strongly contest that they are very intelligent). In a best case scenario, it will take you a very long time to write this story, but I think there's some extent to which being more intelligent widens the range of thoughts you can think of ever.

Comment author: Larks 06 July 2013 10:55:46PM 7 points [-]

It's going to take a very long time for Chimpanzees to write Hamlet.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 07 July 2013 01:53:42AM 6 points [-]

Sure, the method I mention only allows you to write characters a single level above yours.

Comment author: ikrase 07 July 2013 02:51:27AM 9 points [-]

You can also have characters make original discoveries that you read about in books.

Comment author: Benquo 07 July 2013 05:53:07AM 11 points [-]

Or correctly apply in real time techniques that you have only read about in books.