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Izeinwinter comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapters 105-107 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: b_sen 17 February 2015 01:17AM

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Comment author: linkhyrule5 17 February 2015 02:21:47PM 10 points [-]

If Parseltongue depended only on the actual truth of the world, Voldemort would have won already, because you can then pull single bits of arbitrary information out of the aether one at a time.

Comment author: Izeinwinter 17 February 2015 04:20:25PM 4 points [-]

It was designed by Salazar to help his heirs cooperate - Presumably, all the obvious ways to fuck with it are well and truly walled off, because he'd expect a bunch of them to be morons about this and try to light the awesome gift horse of a working trust engine on fire. Also presumably, it isn't an universal oracle, the world not being currently ruled by Salazar Slytherin the God-King. At a guess, it either keeps a log of your life separate from your memory, or the ability to speak parseltounge depends on an intact mind, and the only thing you are able to say in parseltounge if you do memory charms on yourself is "I'm a moron who thinks obliviate is a toy".

Comment author: ChristianKl 17 February 2015 04:24:29PM 5 points [-]

It was designed by Salazar to help his heirs cooperate

That's the story Quirrell tells Harry.