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ChaosMote comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 113 - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: Gondolinian 28 February 2015 08:23PM

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Comment author: ChaosMote 01 March 2015 12:47:23PM 4 points [-]

I don't believe leveraging Voldemort's bargain will work the way you suggest, because Parseltongue does not enforce promises, only honesty. When Harry demands that he himself be saved, Voldemort can simply say "No."

Comment author: Benquo 02 March 2015 03:01:26AM 1 point [-]

Right - but how low do you think the probability is, and what's the best action it displaces?

Comment author: ChaosMote 10 April 2015 10:18:29PM 0 points [-]

Sorry - hadn't logged in for a while. I thought it would have vanishingly low probability of working, though I don't believe that it displaces any other action likely to work (though it does displace saving a person if all else fails, which has nontrivial value). Having said that, curiously enough it seems that this particular suggestion WAS implemented in the official solution, so I guess that was that. :)