fezziwig comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 119 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Gondolinian 10 March 2015 06:10PM

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Comment author: gwern 10 March 2015 07:22:15PM *  18 points [-]

Not in the least. As the endgame plays out, I'm more certain than ever I'll win my bet against it winning a Hugo for Best Novel.

To have a chance of winning, MoR needed two things:

  1. an ending that blew peoples' minds and moved the work as a whole from pretty good to extraordinary
  2. to gain a SF professional following

The ending is pretty good but not fantastic, and one of the few professionals openly praising it, David Brin, has cooled a bit on it (in part because he's a lazy reader and in favor of his own much more stupid ending, true, but cooled nonetheless), so it has been doing neither and, as it uses up chapter after chapter, sealing its fate. Should've taken my offer to sell the bet at a discount.

Comment author: Transfuturist 11 March 2015 02:36:31AM 0 points [-]

What's Brin's stupid ending?

Comment author: fezziwig 11 March 2015 02:40:36AM 4 points [-]

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2015/03/a-quick-informal-post-on-yudkowskys.html

I think "stupid" is a little strong, personally. But I like the canon ending better.

Comment author: avichapman 11 March 2015 09:06:08PM 4 points [-]

Brin seems to equate 'rational' with 'non-violent'. They're not always the same thing.

Comment author: Transfuturist 11 March 2015 02:46:35AM *  4 points [-]

one that’s hardly foreshadowed at all

Oh. Boy.

First of all, yes it was. Second of all, Brin's critique is based on literary tropes, not logic. If it's obvious that Voldemort were referring to the train, then the train wouldn't exactly be a prime target, would it.

Brin's response to the anonymous "troll" speaks to his arrogance.

Comment author: CellBioGuy 11 March 2015 07:37:58AM *  2 points [-]

Oh Brin reacts like that to everyone with slightly different ideas. That's nothing though, it actually seems to get personal when it's different ideas about shape of the future in particular. That is particularly amusing to watch.

Comment author: Subbak 11 March 2015 09:39:15PM 2 points [-]

Ugh... That's such a painful read I had to stop in the middle. Seriously, how is it rational for Harry to be insulting V in English? Even if V somehow does not take offense, one of his Death Eaters will. I know I felt like Adava Kadavra-ing the stupid brat who was pretending to be HJPEV in this...

Comment author: polymathwannabe 11 March 2015 04:19:28AM 2 points [-]

I just read it, and stupid is precisely what it is.

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