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Quirrel-supporters: don't worry, I'm sure Bellatrix will show up to save the day.
In response to
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 114 + chapter 115
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, March 2015, chapter 114 + chapter 115
If she does, she'll have to do it with only one arm.
In response to
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
Ch. 108
"What did you do with Bellatrix once she was out?"
"Ssent her to a peaceful place to recover sstrength," Professor Quirrell said. A cold smile. "I had a use remaining for her, or rather a certain portion of her, and on my future plans I shall not answer questions."
Ch. 112
For a second Harry's mind couldn't process what he was seeing, and then he saw that Voldemort was holding a human arm, severed near the shoulder; it seemed too thin, that arm.
The Dark Lord pressed his wand to the flesh above the severed arm's elbow, and the fingers twitched, twitched like they were alive; by dim moonlight Harry saw a darker mark appear on that flesh, just above the elbow.
Is everyone else making this interpretation?
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
I see it also. I believe that broke her out as a backup plan in case his attempt to get the stone failed. He could then always grab a peice of Bellatrix and a peice of an enemy (Harry? Someone else?) and come back that way.
In response to
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
Beneath the moonlight glints a tiny fragment of silver, a fraction of a line...
(black robes, falling)
...blood spills out in litres, and someone screams a word.
Prediction: This is the scene where that happes, and the "fraction of a line" is partial transfiguration used as a cutting weapon.
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
I agree. A carbon nanotube metres long and whipped around fast. And Hermione screaming, "Harry!!!"
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
I remark that
- it has recently been pointed out that Harry's Patronus v2.0 is powered by his life as well as his magic and that this (at least according to Voldemort, so obviously it's true) makes it more powerful than it could have been if powered by just his magic
- even the small fraction of his life he was able to give up on the spur of the moment was enough to restore Hermione's life and magic, which even Voldemort was unable to do on his own
- in canon, central to Harry's ultimate victory is his willingness to die
and suggest that if your prediction is correct, what powers his absurdly powerful spell may be the sacrifice of the whole of his life and magic.
(Hmm. The power of a potion in HPMOR is determined by what went into making its ingredients, a curious and probably important discovery that hasn't been applied yet for anything other than winning playfights. What went into making Harry was, among other things, the power and ingenuity -- and in some sense even the life -- of Lord Voldemort. Maaaaybe.)
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 112
You may be on to something. Merlin created his Interdict with exactly that sacrifice.
In response to
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
Hypothesis: The mirror (or the whole room) connects universes. More specifically, there is only one mirror, stable in the multiverse (quantum, mathematical, magical or whatever) of compatible universes. A compatible universe is such an universe where the mirror exists, i.e. most probably the one that did not branch off before the end of Atlantis (or boltzmanned into existence a moment ago).
Looking into the reflection, your (magical) brain picks the image from a different universe, the one that matches your CEV most closely.
Nothing can hurt the mirror, unless the measure of the universes the action is performed in is a "significant portion" of the multiverse - otherwise it just dissipates.
The map shows gibberish, because, well, there is everybody and nobody in the last room...
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
+1 for using 'Boltzmann' as a verb.
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
Am I the only one who thinks it's not realistic that an eleven-year-old in the 1990s hasn't had any dirty thoughts?
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
Some 11 year olds aren't interested in sex yet. Others are forks of an adult Tom Riddle who similarly isn't interested in sex.
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
If the laws of reality are simulated, then they must be computable. A giant switch statement isn't going to let you figure out how to make time travel consistent. They couldn't easily check every possibility and see if it's consistent. Even if they did, that would mean they're simulating all of them, including the inconsistent ones, and there'd be no reason for Harry to find himself in a consistent one.
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
It the simulation were infinitly parrallel and all simulations that weren't consistent crashed, the Harry that made the observation about the loop would necessarily be in a self-consistent simulation.
In response to
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
Continuing on Izienwinter's reasoning:
Harry and Voldemort sprung the trap, they are now inside the mirror, Dumbledoor is outside.
It is now an AI box experiment, with Dumbledoor as Gatekeeper and Harry as the AI wanting out!
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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 109
And the clock is ticking. If Dumbledoor is aware of the plot to kill hundreds of students, the folks inside the box have some leverage.
Are Cognitive Load and Willpower drawn from the same pool?
I was recently reading a blog here, that referenced a paper done in 1999 by Baba Shiv and Alex Fedorikhin (Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making). In it, volunteers are asked to memorise short or long numbers and then asked to chose a snack as a reward. The snack is either fruit or cake. The actual paper seems to go into a lot of details that are irrelevent to the blog post, but doesn't actually seem to contradict anything the blog post says. The result seems to be that those with a higher cognitive load were far more likely to chose the cake than those who weren't.
I was wondering if anyone has read any further on this line of research? The actual experiment seems to imply that the connection between cognitive load and willpower may be an acute effect - possibly not lasting very long. The choice of snack is made seconds after memorising a number and while actively trying to keep the number in memory for short term recall a few minutes later. There doesn't seem to be anything about the effect on willpower minutes or hours later.
Does anyone know if the effect lasts longer than a few seconds? If so, I would be interested in whether this affect has been incorporated into any dieting strategies.
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I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea that could still be true, but wasn't needed in Chapter 114-115. It had bothered me that the Hermione toe-ring wasn't detected. In fact, it was explicitly checked for magic and it was discovered that it was portkey magic rather than transfiguration magic.
Overnight, I had the idea that perhaps Harry put his portkey toering on Hermione's body (though obviously not her toe) before he transfigured her. I have no idea how such things work, but I suppose its possible that the portkey magic would still be detectible when transfigured and would even mask out the transfiguration magic.