Luke_A_Somers comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 114 + chapter 115 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Gondolinian 03 March 2015 06:02PM

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

Article Navigation

Comments (423)
Tags: fiction hpmor harry_potter fanfiction

Comments (423)

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

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 March 2015 05:50:47PM 8 points [-]

A lot of people think that Voldemort was going too easy on Harry, making this a "Coil vs. Taylor in the burning building" violation of suspension-of-disbelief for some of them. I am considering rewriting 113 with the following changes:

  • Most Death Eaters are watching the surrounding area, not Harry; Voldemort's primary hypothesis for how Time might thwart him involves outside interference.
  • Voldemort tells Harry to point his wand outward and downward at the ground, then has a Death Eater paralyze Harry (except heart/lungs/mouth/eyes) in that position before the unbreakable Vow. This would also require a retroedit to 15 or 28 to make it clear that Transfiguration does not require an exact finger position on the wand.

Submitting...

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 04 March 2015 09:07:12PM *  29 points [-]

I would add a reason for Harry to have the wand.

Like, instead of, "You will not raise your wand", "You will only raise your wand when and how I permit it. Do not demonstrate a spell unless ordered."

That would imply that Voldemort was open to the possibility that Harry might demonstrate something, which would require arming him.

Comment author: dxu 06 March 2015 06:09:56AM 4 points [-]

This was actually my original assumption as to why Voldemort let Harry keep his wand, and I was surprised it didn't come into play. Adding a line to the effect of "demonstrate some spell" would solve pretty much every problem raised by the readers, and as such, this is by far my favorite solution proposed so far. Upvoted enthusiastically.

Comment author: Duncan 04 March 2015 09:18:47PM *  4 points [-]

Your phrasing makes it also look like a plausible mistake for someone in a new situation with little time to consider things.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 05 March 2015 02:23:10AM 3 points [-]

I'm not sure what you mean here.

Comment author: Duncan 05 March 2015 02:16:22PM 0 points [-]

Edited phrasing to make it more clear....

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 05 March 2015 02:42:09PM 2 points [-]

I was aiming for it to be a mistake that someone could make even in a relatively familiar situation with ample time to consider.

Comment author: Raemon 07 March 2015 10:23:22PM *  2 points [-]

This is by far my favorite change that seems probably-acceptable-to-eliezer.

I'd have preferred if the winning stroke included (at least in the "talking to buy time" section) something that addressed learning to lose, or keeping secrets, or their different mental-frameworks that enable different powers. But I assume Eliezer's less willing to retcon that sort of thing.

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit