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lmm 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: solipsist 29 July 2014 02:14:05AM 3 points [-]

I'm not picky on definitions. "The entity Hermione called 'Mister Incredibly Suspicious Person' has Baba Yaga's memories." That definition is looser than it needs to be, but I'm giving you generous odds.

Resolution would be informal, with us PMing payment instructions to each other. The payment information I would send you would be cheap, non-sketchy, and anonymous for me. We might agree to call the bet off by February 28th 2014 if the bet is not resolved by then. If there's somehow a definitional dispute, we work it out, possibly with someone else on the forum arbitrating. Default option is to cancel the bet.

If I lose the bet I will laugh it off. You probably should not accept unless you would do the same.

Comment author: lmm 29 July 2014 06:57:27PM 3 points [-]

I think the most likely scenario is that we'll hear no more about either of them. So I want to win that case; if the two are unrelated then I doubt we'll hear anything explicit to that effect.

Rather than worry about what's "cheap" let's just say the loser pays $50 gross, any payment fees or the like can come out of the winnings. And I'll stipulate that anything bitcoiny qualifies as sketchy.

And yeah, $50 is an amount that I can comfortably toss for online entertainment without checking my bank balance.

Comment author: solipsist 29 July 2014 07:14:21PM 3 points [-]

How about this stipulation: if the name Baba Yaga does not appear in the book again, and Eliezer Yudkowsky does not Word of God that Mr. Hat & Cloak is Baba Yaga, you win. I'm expecting Baba Yaga to be important, and if she's not mentioned again or only mentioned offhandedly I will likely concede.

We are on the same page about payments.

Comment author: lmm 30 July 2014 07:26:17AM 9 points [-]

Sounds fair enough. So we have a bet?

Comment author: solipsist 30 July 2014 11:11:58AM 9 points [-]

We have a bet. It's on!

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 February 2015 04:33:32PM 6 points [-]

By request, I declare solipsist to have lost this bet.

Comment author: solipsist 04 December 2014 02:28:38AM 1 point [-]

The latest progress report suggests that chapters will resume in February, so the story might not finish until March. Extend the bet's expiration date to March 31st, 2015?

Comment author: lmm 04 December 2014 08:05:49AM 1 point [-]

Sure. Happy to push it out a bit longer actually, as I'm not confident there won't be further slippage; how about extending until June 30th?

Comment author: solipsist 04 December 2014 11:02:21AM 1 point [-]

Sure.