Will_Newsome comments on Lawrence Watt-Evans's Fiction - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 July 2008 03:00AM

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Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 03 July 2012 09:46:50AM 2 points [-]

That was pretty clever writing, but... no. Just no.

Really? You have never guessed the thoughts of someone you have spent practically every day with for years?

Comment author: Will_Newsome 03 July 2012 10:13:54AM *  3 points [-]

Also there's a lot of variation in how skilled people are at reading emotions. Also a lot of variation in how much attention people pay to small details, and how good a memory they have for them. I've heard anecdotes about Zen masters being able to do things similar to what Holmes did in the story—it's not too far-fetched to think that that level of training combined with one in a million innate ability combined with a decent amount of prior knowledge about a person would give one something like legilimency.