Considering how much of a threat technology can pose when combined with magic, one or more factions may have deliberately placed an ignorant pureblood into the position in order to keep knowledge of muggle developments marginal.
It still says bad things that the Head of the DMLE thinks that Arthur "knows more about Muggle artifacts than any wizard alive" rather than, say, any random muggleborn or halfblood.
That implies he at least suspects Harry holds a horcrux...
If it existed and was semi-public knowledge, then Lucius would have made a priority of acquiring some for Draco.
Personally I'm assuming that Quirrelmort rescued Bellatrix to influence Harry. He now has first-hand evidence that Harry was engaged in a major crime, has shown Harry a part of the Wizarding world which he could never accept which was enabled by democracy, has shown Harry that Dumbledore isn't as proactive as Harry would want him to be, almost convinced Harry that a revolution is necessary, convinced Harry to lie to protect him, and has made Harry feel sorry for Bellatrix. Generating a 'false alarm' of Voldemort's return is a nice side effect as well if he...
Ah, very well then. Thank you for clearing that up.
Well, I can mention a theory for the sake of discussion, but it's rather hypothetical.
When it occurred I was assuming that:
Dumbledore as a 'Great Wizard' embodied the virtues Eliezer seems to be emphasizing in the story, including intelligence, hard work, critical thought, and a certain amount of rationality.
Harry's Dark Side is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes or a portion of his soul.
Dumbledore is, at least partly, faking his senility to appear less dangerous to his enemies and make it more difficult for them to predict his action. He's still ready to make...
A quick google couldn't find any link to the study itself, if you have a link, could you post it please?
Same as Silas.
The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, although finding the share of responsibility might be difficult.
I can't remember whether it was Dumbledore specifically who was named in that pledge, making it invalid if someone else did it (technically, at least, Draco would probably consider it a betrayal if Harry found out who did it but didn't help him get revenge) but if Amelia did it, then Hermione could be dragged into the situation as well, as a friend of Susan's, and we could have a fascinating obligation tug-of-war for Harry.
I suppose that you could joke about the Weird Ideas and signal you didn't take yourself too seriously to them, which might put them at ease if it convinces them that you aren't implying you're better than they are, and so their status isn't being threatened... but that might kind of defeat the purpose by not doing anything to reduce the bias against non-conventional ideas, I'm not very good at modeling people.
I'd imagine that the Death Eater's own activities would be brought into the lime-light as well, if it were a major arc.
Another thought which occurred, is that Amelia Bones killed Narcissa in revenge for the Death Eater's killing of her family members, then Dumbledore claimed responsibility in order to send a message to the Death Eater's and Malfoy to discourage further attacks on the Order's families, and prevent Lucius from finding any evidence of Amelia's responsibility, which might have allowed him to remove one of Dumbledore's more powerful allies. He probably would have had to have been careful to give the impression that he would be willing to do so 'again' to the ot...
I'm quite fond of this for quick statistics for my Economics course; http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ Although the CIA World Factbook; https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ is my favourite if I have to supply a reference without checking back to government or private statistic sources.
If our universe was an artificial construct, then the potential scenarios spin out of control as we consider the possible motivations of the 'creators'. Although the assumption may not apply in universes with different physical laws, I'll operate on the premise that their computing power is finite.
In the first scenario, the one that normally shows up in popular science programmes referring to science fiction to entertain the audience, this is a game. If we were directly created by the 'creators', then we must be beings that they can conceive of, and reflec...
Presumably the capital investment everyone frozen gives to the Cryonics Institute would pay for their revival, or perhaps just for the revival and re-education of some of the more interesting people, who would then, hopefully feeling some empathy for the remaining popsicles, pay to have them reanimated later.
I'll just try to be interesting, and somewhat self-sacrificing so someone who reads any of my work might feel guilty enough to have me reanimated.
Or we might just be reanimated to serve as soldiers in a future war as our coping mechanisms leave us just the right type of crazy to stay mostly sane in harsh environments. Who knows?
Ah, edited. Perhaps I shouldn't have made the assumption.
And lo, she did answer the question concisely and effectively! I doubt Bayesianism is available in any of the universities I might be going to though, so I think Economics, minoring in Sociology and Psychology would suit me best.
I think so. The people most given to the introspection that leads to an interest in this philosophy seem to be those somehow marginalized by society, and they typically aren't very socially adept. Which is a pity, given how supportive a background in rationalist literature could be for a psychology student.
Maybe a less statistical one might be better, while interesting, it doesn't easily meet my needs. I'll post one in the morning unless someone else wants to do it, although if privacy is an issue for some people we'll likely need some off-site element.
But how can you even be sure you really exist?! Maybe you're just a figment of someone else's imagination?
I've always wondered, what do people do in the philosophy course? Is it all ancient greek poetry, or is that image outdated?
I'm thinking Stirling university might suit me the best for now, it's outside town, has a good economics department, and is closest to where I live after Aberdeen. Still, I'm not set, did Edinburgh have a decent Economics faculty when you were there?
Greetings Lesswrong
My name is, well, my username. I'm sixteen, currently in my final year of high school, male, and living in Inverness, Scotland.
I first became interested in Lesswrong and it's philosophy after reading some very good fiction here, although many of the references took me time to understand. After sporadically reading the occasional article for a few months, and doing some serious thinking about where I want to be in a few years, I decided to register to better network a few weeks ago. I haven't made notable progress on the sequences yet, a...
I'm trying to do so, but the chances of them being nearby, and of university age seem pretty low. Has there ever been a LessWrong user census? Ages, locations, etc.
Yes, that's something I'm not sure about. There's plenty of good reasons to pursue the goal, and, as far as I've seen, plenty of people willing to support it on this site... but there isn't any obvious coordination. If enough of us could gain positions at universities, spread out to maximize coverage, or focused to 'take-over' an institution, then we would likely see far more success. (Unfortunately none of our current ad-hoc 'leadership' has that much appeal outside the group, so playing politics doesn't look like it would work out well for us.) I'm prob...
Done. I'm still learning how the site's software works, so thanks for pointing it out.
My apologies. Here's the main thread, but there's a sequence on his plan I can't find listed anywhere but his profile.
Wait, hold the press! There's no reason for the two options to be exclusive. Your brain information could still be preserved while donating your organs after death, if you were in circumstances in which the organs could be harvested while still useful. If you're younger than, say, fifty, this shouldn't ever become an issue, anyway.
Would you like to GM, for the first round at least?
You'd be better off spending your life as it stands on something important, or prominent, (academia or business for example) and becoming an advert for Cryonics. If you gain status, then make cryonics, and rationality, less 'weird'.
That way you get to contribute, and stay alive!
I've seen a few, mostly when I scan my spam folder in case I missed something from Amazon etc, but the thing that annoys me the most is how blatantly false the threats and rewards are. At the very least they could put in the effort to make it seem plausible, maybe threaten to send a virus and offer free porn, or something like that...
I mean, it's a good thing that these criminals aren't very bright, but it's depressing how little effort they put into their career. I'd have thought the inherent risks involved in criminality would have filtered out the laziest people.
...
Running through the woods half naked wouldn't make things any easier, you know. I see what you're saying, but it's more about keeping my 'slate' clean and not getting into trouble for some reason.
That is also a valid point. I don't currently have any exercise clothes beyond old shirts though, so I need to buy some anyway. My wardrobe primarily consists of 'fade into the background' gear, and school uniforms, with an old suit jacket kicking around somewhere.
Normally I'd take the advice, but the woods is owned by the forestry commission. They're subsidised by the government on condition that they let the public, e.g. me, have access, but they run a forestry college there. With all the heavy machinery and chainsaws that implies appearing every so often. I didn't mention it, so you weren't to know, but I'd prefer to be a little safer in exchange for the added boredom and exposure to noise.
Thanks, that would be a simple solution. It seems rather obvious now, I just nod, mutter 'good morning/afternoon' and run on... which they accept as a response without question because I'm there for Serious Running!
My family's relatively well off, and my birthday is coming up, so the cost isn't likely to be a problem unless it's very expensive. I'll check out the sports store next time I'm in town and see what sort of kit they have available. Thanks again.
I really need to get far more strenuous exercise than I currently do, but I can be very uncomfortable exposing myself to any criticism from people I don't already know. I live on the edge of a village nearby to a woods which I currently walk in occasionally. Other people use it regularly, and as a teenager, I often get the impression they think I'm there to drink or do drugs if I'm there at any time other than approximately three o'clock, when my school gets out, although in fairness drunken teens do litter the area regularly. I often find myself lacking ...
If you can afford it, you may be able to nonverbally signal to onlookers that you are there for Serious Running by showing up in a Serious Running outfit with corresponding accessories.
I can vouch for the Pasta recipes with great enthusiasm.
Another food I'd recommend for ease of eating and cheapness, is Shepherdess pie, Shepherd's pie with the meat replaced with vegetables, which I personally prefer. Linkage!
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/5397/shepherdess-pie.aspx
I did a google search for 'batch cooking', and this result may be of interest to you.
Ah, much obliged. Gives Karma\
Well good luck with everything, and make sure you have a route out if something goes wrong. I'm trying to work towards a masters of doctorate in economics once I reach university, for example, but if I am unable to do that, I have the option of simply becoming an economist or assistant economist etc.
I'll PM you if it looks likely to work out, or already has... adds to list\.
EDIT: Can I ask, how do I add an asterisk on this forum without them being read as Italics? (It indicates an action in a lot of forum-dialects.)
I admit to only having watched scattered episodes and the pilot, but assuming that the alicorn transformation can only be granted to ponies one could argue upraising the entire population would have a negative effect on the other sapient species such as Gryphons. If she held that position she could even support transponyism inherently, but oppose immediate application until a parallel can be developed for other sapients.
Some possibilities:
- Comparing their own capabilities and lifespans to that of alicorns could demoralise the other races.
- While the danger
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