You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Normal_Anomaly comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 16, chapter 85 - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: FAWS 18 April 2012 02:30AM

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

Comments (1106)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 22 May 2012 07:39:30PM 4 points [-]

I just reread this bit, while Harry and Quirrel are discussing where to hide things:

Or ideally you would launch it into space, with a cloak against detection, and a randomly fluctuating acceleration factor that would take it out of the Solar System.

I just noticed that this could be the in-world cause of the Cvbarre Rssrpg.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 22 May 2012 07:43:15PM 1 point [-]

This point has been independently worked out by a few people. I think there have been at least two threads on that subject (a while ago I posted the same thing and someone pointed then to a prior thread discussing the same idea).

Comment author: 75th 22 May 2012 09:42:28PM 0 points [-]

Unfortunately, the Cvbarre Rssrpg was recently explained. But then, McGonagall's Presbyterian upbringing was recently explained, as well.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 22 May 2012 11:08:43PM 0 points [-]

Can you repeat the explanation, or point me to the link? I was pretty sure I wasn't the first person to see that question, but I didn't know it'd been Jossed. I wouldn't mind an explanation of McGonagall's Presbyterian upbringing either.

Comment author: arundelo 22 May 2012 11:41:20PM *  1 point [-]

The Cvbarre Nabznyl has been explained in real life (although according to the relevant Wikipedia entry, this explanation has not yet been universally accepted).

I don't know about the McGonagall thing.

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 23 May 2012 01:13:31PM 0 points [-]

Cool! Thanks for the link.

Comment author: 75th 25 May 2012 12:02:36AM *  2 points [-]

Pottermore revealed that Minerva McGonagall's father was a Presbyterian minister, who kinda freaked out when he learned about magic. McGonagall in canon, therefore, was raised knowing perfectly well about Muggles; she wasn't a pureblood raised in the wizard world as MoR depicts.

So what I meant was that given that there's absolutely no way to write himself out of getting McGonagall's backstory wrong, I am perfectly content for Eliezer to not attempt to write himself out of this far subtler discrepancy from reality.