All of CrimsonWool's Comments + Replies

I would say the likeliest explanation is that people do care, but only insofar as it enables them to signal that they care. Caring much farther than that is pretty much pointless, from an evolutionary perspective, and probably actively detrimental.

2A1987dM
I dunno.

Unless, of course, the machinery for caring is much simpler when it's simply "care" vs "not care". Pretending to care could be a much more complicated neurological adaptation that would be more wasteful than just implementing a nice "Sympathy" subsystem.

I mean, the way humans model each other's behavior is by looking at our own self in other people's scenarios, and then making minor adjustments for accuracy's sake, since they think a little differently. I mean, why would you invent an entire subsystem just for understanding ot... (read more)

Because if you care about someone else (i.e. put a value on protecting and aiding that person), you become a resource worth preserving to that person.

1TimS
So people pretend to care about others because this might cause others to actually try to help them? It's a plausible theory of human behavior, but seems awfully complicated to describe the mental processes of people we are all but explicitly told are too stupid to consistently implement their preferences. In other words, there could actually be a reason that people think caring is the right thing to do, but trivial inconveniences and other errors of thinking prevent them from actually doing what they really think is right. This seems like a better description of most folks' mental processes than "doesn't care, and knows it" - which is the implication I get from the response sentence.

People don't know how to pretend to care, thus them being terrible at it - see, for example, not even spending five minutes to try to think of a way to bring their friends back to life.

5fezziwig
Right, but how would they even know that caring is the thing they're supposed to pretend to do?

It's worth noting that in the Milgram experiment, there is no perceived punishment for failure to participate, just a polite repetition. Further, the Milgram experiment models willingness to stop acting in accordance with orders, rather that willingness to act against orders, which, while morally fairly indistinguishable, are psychologically (and legally) substantially different.

1William_Quixote
Your right that its not a perfect parallel, but I'm not sure which way that cuts. In Milgram there's no threat of punishment, but participants have to actively participate not merely stand by in a crowd. Also in Milgram they have to listen to the guy scream each time they press the button, instead of just imagine something off screen.

It's my understanding that people prefer to go counterclockwise in all sorts of situations, it might just be that.

2pete22
That's really interesting, but I don't think it's what's going on here. The real-world routes are messier of course, and in the particular one that made me think of this question, my preferred longer route is closer to clockwise. I think it happens both ways.

Baba Yaga has "been dead for six hundred years," and a quick Wikipedia search suggests the historical myth is first recorded in 1755, nor can I find anything particularly relating her to being from around ~1400. Nicholas Flamel is six centuries old (canonically, he was born in 1327), which means the Philosopher's Stone, if it exists, is around the same age.

Not sure what kind of coherent theory you can come up with to put it all together, though... Voldemort = Baba Yaga seems a little... silly, especially given Quirrell talking about female wiza... (read more)

0fractalman
Maybe some ritual required not a sacrifice of (whatever), but the sacrifice of the user's dignitiy? Though Baba Yaga COULD just be flamel's wife. He has one in cannon, I...think...
5solipsist
Yeah, Flamel/Crozier timeline aligns with Baba Yaga. A similar timeline and region alignment is the book The Massacre of Albania in the Fifteenth Century, mentioned offhandedly in Chapter 26.

From chapter 85:

"And the last was cousin to your young friend Lavender Brown, and he -" The old wizard's voice cracked. "He did not return, did poor John, and he saved none of those he meant to save."

Did anyone else get this ref? I haven't seen anyone else post about it.

2arundelo
Eliezer says on r/hpmor that it is a reference to the John Brown of Harpers Ferry. Responding to someone pointing out time-and-place difficulties, he says: