= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
ChrisHallquist comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 24, chapter 95 - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
Comments (304)
On Quirrell's theory of human nature:
It seems to me that in general, his theory yields pretty accurate predictions, and to see what's wrong with it you probably need to know some evolutionary psychology; Eliezer's Adaptation-Executers, not Fitness-Maximizers. Evolution is going to favor genes for convincingly acting like you care about your friends without incurring too many costs for their sake. Yeah, it's also going to favor genes for seeing through easily faked signals, but to the extent that people can get away with it, it's going to favor genes for seeming to care about your friends without incurring the costs that would go along with that. The twist is that evolution while evolution produces behaviors that tend in that direction, it doesn't produce creatures who follow the strategies exactly, or consciously. The result is people who actually care about their friends... even if they very often don't act like it.
I've been working with the idea that Quirrell is a high functioning psychopath, who often believe that other people are also "faking it".
That seems like a really obvious descriptor of Voldemort.
Or maybe Voldemort is pretending to be a psychopath. pretending to be a cynic who uses masks.
In the fact of pretending to be anything he becomes someone who uses masks, so that has to be his first level of identity even if it gets duplicated further up. He could, I suppose, secretly be an idealist who uses masks, but that seems unlikely.
I figured a psychopath could pretend to have the emotion of fear and hurt, which a mask using cynic would retain.
I don't disagree, but I would note that the extent to which people exhibit role-like behavior is probably also somewhat due to cognitive limitations as well as humans not being strategic. You cannot consider every possible scenario or plan, so if you want to be a good friend, a good cook, or a good philosopher, looking at the way that other friends, cooks, or philosophers behave and copying that is generally a pretty good heuristic. It's often better to follow the accumulated wisdom and only make small improvements on that, rather than to try something drastically different that nobody has tried before but which should work in theory, or which at least should if the bullet-swallowers are correct.
Note that this is compatible with Quirrell maintaining that McGonagall wouldn't be enthused with the idea of resurrecting Hermione even if it was pointed out to her: indiscriminately believing in arguments is dangerous, so it would still make sense for her to reject an outlandish argument that she couldn't properly evaluate, like "let's go resurrect Hermione", even if she did genuinely care about Hermione.
(I find it ironic that, as I check this page, this comment was right below a thread claiming that Quirrells arguments are superficial.)
It's interesting to view these friend roles that Quirrelmort keeps referring to as products of evolution, which Harry is purposefully seeking an escape from by seeking to conquer death itself. It's this perspective that allows him to be willing to disregard the evolutionary shaped roles that Quirrelmort keeps trying to remind him of.