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Benito comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, July 2014, chapter 102 - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: David_Gerard 26 July 2014 11:26AM

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Comment author: polymathwannabe 26 July 2014 04:12:23PM 4 points [-]

I don't know where else to post this, but I've been entertaining a hypothesis about HPMOR's version of magic. Has anyone already made the connection between magic and Outcome Pumps? During the first chapters in Hogwarts, Harry talks a lot about expectations, and about magic being able to match them, and it ocurred to me that HPMOR's magic was a mechanism to force your universe to branch into one that matches your expectation. Then I read somewhere, in old threads, that EY was at one point in the past planning to write a story about a device to "squeeze the future," and I realized that HPMOR was it. Your wand is the device that squeezes the future and ensures you end up in the world you expected. Has this been discussed already?

Comment author: Benito 26 July 2014 06:28:03PM *  5 points [-]

If this is the case, I imagine that the story will be darn-near not understandable towards the end, when Harry finds this out.

I mean, what do you expect to happen when you expect reality to fit your expectations? When the territory starts to match to the map?!

Edit: a Added the words 'you expect' and changed nearby words to be grammatically appropriate.

Comment author: Larks 28 July 2014 09:27:46AM 4 points [-]

Well, if the "expects" operator starts acting like a "proves" operator, that sounds like Lob's theorem.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 26 July 2014 06:39:05PM 4 points [-]

I mean, what do you expect to happen when reality fits your expectations? When the territory starts to match to the map?!

I've been writing a story based on this premise. Spoiler: crazy shit happens.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 26 July 2014 09:04:15PM 1 point [-]

Sounds like the ending of Anathem.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 26 July 2014 11:55:30PM *  2 points [-]

It also reminds me of Friedman's Coldfire books.