[LINK] Author's Note 119: Shameless Begging

Evan_Gaensbauer

[Contains No HPMOR Spoliers]

[http://hpmor.com/notes/119/](http://hpmor.com/notes/119/)

I was at first confused by Eliezer's requests at the end of Ch. 119. I missed his Author's Notes, which his explains his rationale behind them. I thought I would share in case others missed it, especially because readers on LessWrong may have more elite or broader networks to help Eliezer achieve his new goals.

Eliezer is seeking the possibility of gaining J. K. Rowling's permission to publish HPMoR in some form, and have the profits donated to a U.K. charity. To this end, he wants to contact someone who can put him in touch with either J. K. Rowling, or Daniel Radcliffe.
If you're attending or supporting Worldcon through 2015-17, and think Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is worthy, please nominate it to win Best Novel for the 2016 Hugo Awards.
The Machine Intelligence Research Institute is looking to hire at least one new executive, and very competent mathematicians for its research.
Eliezer is thinking on what fiction to next write. He would re-edit an old script of his if and only if someone contacts with him to make either a movie with high-quality special effects, or an anime. Otherwise, he is seeking to work with the Collective Intelligence (the problem-solving force composed of the HPMoR readership). Check it out if you consider yourself part of the CI.
Eliezer is seeking to contact John Paulson the hedge-fund manager, to represent a financier as their angel investor, and other investment opportunities.

Eliezer has several other projects he might be interested in. Learn more by clicking the link.

Eliezer is seeking the possibility of gaining J. K. Rowling's permission to publish HPMoR in some form, and have the profits donated to a U.K. charity. To this end, he wants to contact someone who can put him in touch with either J. K. Rowling, or Daniel Radcliffe.
If you're attending or supporting Worldcon through 2015-17, and think Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is worthy, please nominate it to win Best Novel for the 2016 Hugo Awards.
The Machine Intelligence Research Institute is looking to hire at least one new executive, and very competent mathematicians for its research.
Eliezer is thinking on what fiction to next write. He would re-edit an old script of his if and only if someone contacts with him to make either a movie with high-quality special effects, or an anime. Otherwise, he is seeking to work with the Collective Intelligence (the problem-solving force composed of the HPMoR readership). Check it out if you consider yourself part of the CI.
Eliezer is seeking to contact John Paulson the hedge-fund manager, to represent a financier as their angel investor, and other investment opportunities.

Eliezer has several other projects he might be interested in. Learn more by clicking the link.

Yeah, I get the whole weirdtopia thing. But like Mark says, its probably not the best weird thing to be chosen.

And if people can't understand that and read any kind of far-off weirdness through the lens of this decade's petty tribal politics, then basically, fuck 'em.

In one way, I think this attitude is commendable - interlectual and artistic integrity and not having to kowtow to people who are offended. But at the same time, 'anyone who disagrees can just fuck off' ... its not the best PR. And I don't think 'not being scared of rape' is an important criteria for rationalists.

I've read a similar idea to legalised rape before, in the context of a future where it was considered extremely bad manners to refuse sex. I can kinda imagine this could work. But legalised violent rape...

What I imagine would happen is that one person would try to rape another, they would fight back, their friends would intervene, a full-blown bar fight would ensue, someone would smash a bottle, and people would end up in the hospital, or the mental asylum, or the morgue.

Or are they not allowed to fight back? Is it maybe just date rape which is legal, or can you for instance, kidnap and rape someone who is on their way to an important business meeting? Do people say "First on the agenda, Mrs Brown and Mr Black give their apologies that they are unable to attend the emergency meeting on disaster relief for Proxima centuri - alpha, as Mrs Brown has contracted space measles and Mr Black is otherwise engaged in being anally gang raped"?

I mean, even if everyone in the future are the sort of ultra-kinky people who enjoy being raped, and everyone is bisexual to avoid the problem of being raped by the wrong gender, it still doesn't make sense.

See The Just City by Jo Walton for some descriptions of how unpleasant obligatory sex can be, even with consent. I think it's reasonable to frame it as system 2 consents, but system 1 doesn't.

There's plenty else going on in the book-- it's about an effort to create Plato's Republic.

4Emile11y

It might be worth rereading the passage in question: [...] The passage is very clearly about value dissonance, about how very different cultures can fail to understand each other (which is a major theme of the story). They don't go into details because the only reasons characters bring it up is to show how values have changed. And sticking to a less-controversial example would have defeated the point. And for illustrating this point, I much prefer this approach (meta talk between characters about how much things have canged) than one that would go into details of how the new system worked.

0TobyBartels11y

In context, I thought that it was only date rape. More specifically, you could only rape somebody who had been leading you on. And they regularly discuss paying for sex, so it's not just free for the taking. ETA: Not to mention the rape in the epilogue, which is described as horrible.

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