Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 23, chapter 94

elharo

This is a new thread to discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and anything related to it. This thread is intended for discussing chapter 94. The previous thread has passed 200 comments.

There is now a site dedicated to the story at hpmor.com, which is now the place to go to find the authors notes and all sorts of other goodies. AdeleneDawner has kept an archive of Author’s Notes. (This goes up to the notes for chapter 76, and is now not updating. The authors notes from chapter 77 onwards are on hpmor.com.)

The first 5 discussion threads are on the main page under the harry_potter tag. Threads 6 and on (including this one) are in the discussion section using its separate tag system. Also: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22.

Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically:

You do not need to rot13 anything about HP:MoR or the original Harry Potter series unless you are posting insider information from Eliezer Yudkowsky which is not supposed to be publicly available (which includes public statements by Eliezer that have been retracted).

If there is evidence for X in MOR and/or canon then it’s fine to post about X without rot13, even if you also have heard privately from Eliezer that X is true. But you should not post that “Eliezer said X is true” unless you use rot13.

Spoiler Warning: this thread is full of spoilers. With few exceptions, spoilers for MOR and canon are fair game to post, without warning or rot13. More specifically:

You do not need to rot13 anything about HP:MoR or the original Harry Potter series unless you are posting insider information from Eliezer Yudkowsky which is not supposed to be publicly available (which includes public statements by Eliezer that have been retracted).

If there is evidence for X in MOR and/or canon then it’s fine to post about X without rot13, even if you also have heard privately from Eliezer that X is true. But you should not post that “Eliezer said X is true” unless you use rot13.

I like the analysis, but I think I'm going to have to diverge near the top.

/The only other person strong enough to be the agent behind Hermione's death is Voldemort./

The problem is, we're fairly sure that Voldemort is Quirrell. There's the Pioneer plate, the amusing questionnaire about "where to lose something you want never to be found," and of course the sense of Doom; in addition, I'm pretty sure that Ryvrmre fnvq fb, va gur ergenpgrq Nhgube'f Abgr sbe Puncgre 20.

You're also missing a candidate. Throughout the story, there's been hints at the presence of a Peggy Sue - a long-distance time traveler with unknown intentions and unknown motives. Unfortunately, it's something of a Fully General Explanation for that reason...

Personally, I'm betting somewhere around 65% that Future!Harry is the culprit - less because I'm 70% certain that Future!Harry is responsible, and more because I'm 95% certain Dumbledore didn't, and 75% certain Quirrell didn't, and after that I'm out of conscious hypotheses so the rest get the ~5%.

The problem is, we're fairly sure that Voldemort is Quirrell. There's the Pioneer plate, the amusing questionnaire about "where to lose something you want never to be found," and of course the sense of Doom; in addition, I'm pretty sure that Ryvrmre fnvq fb, va gur ergenpgrq Nhgube'f Abgr sbe Puncgre 20.

I continue, despite all that, to be sceptical that the relationship between the two is anything so simple as plain identity. There is a connection between the two, but Quirrell strikes me as someone who has learned how to be Voldemort but whose... (read more)