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Pretty sure he used an illusion to make it look like he set fire to a chicken. Harry's reaction there and subsequent mistrust of him was necessary for THE PLOT so Dumbledore engineered it, or something.
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Mar 7, 2016 06:37
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My god! Did a Hogwarts professor just suggest a safe and logical approach to learning magic? That can't be right. Surely, instead of a marshmallow, McGonnagall meant a deadly viper, to properly motivate Harry to sustain the spell long-term.
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Mar 8, 2016 21:02
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The arbitrary, needlesly elaborate, overtly detailed loving chapters and chapters devoted to transfiguration may not be the worst parts of the book, per-se, but they are surely the most boring.
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Mar 9, 2016 00:44
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It's a complicated subject. D&D and its derivatives have the same problem with shape-changing spells and what they do or don't allow one to do. Pathfinder broke its polymorph spell down into a bunch of separate spells with clearly defined boundaries to help curtail abuse and confusion, for example. That doesn't mean it makes for exciting reading though. I'm sure a good author could have fun with the subject, but Yud.
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Mar 9, 2016 01:00
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Chapter 18: Dominance Hierarchies Part One quote:
Isn’t Eliezarry supposed to be an avid reader of fantasy stories? Shouldn’t he know that dragons turn up in mountains and caves but never in dungeons? Dungeons and Dragons, yes. Dragons in Dungeons, no. quote:
“Raise just one eyebrow” reminded me of The Rock, which in turn reminded me of the far superior Harry Potter and the Most Electrifying Man. quote:
I wonder if you could use Time-Turners as a way to indulge in gluttonous or other sybaritic excess without gaining weight e.g. eat as much as you want at a certain time, then go back in time to the same time and not eat, and continue your voyage in space-time from that point. Eliezarry could make a fortune from this if he were, you know, minded to conduct scientific experiments on this usage of a magic tool. quote:
Dumbledore sits at the head of the hierarchy at Hogwarts and has been there for decades, and Eliezarry has had recent personal experience of how bad a person Dumbledore is. Why then does Eliezarry still think that “bad teachers” will be fired or even recognised as “bad” teachers in the first place? Shouldn’t he be too smart and/or too cynical to hold such idealistic notions?
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Mar 9, 2016 08:08
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Pvt.Scott posted:My god! Did a Hogwarts professor just suggest a safe and logical approach to learning magic? That can't be right. Surely, instead of a marshmallow, McGonnagall meant a deadly viper, to properly motivate Harry to sustain the spell long-term. Big Yud is consistent on "McGonagall accepts no carelessness whatsoever when it comes to transfigutation." Which is pretty consistent with the actual books too I'm pretty sure? There's enough wrong with HPMOR that we don't need to make up things to make fun of.
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Mar 9, 2016 08:22
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I still enjoy the bit where Harry encounters Snape for the first time. It's all downhill from there.
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Mar 9, 2016 09:56
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JosephWongKS posted:
Time-Turners duplicate you for the hours you travel back in time, so you would still have eaten all of the food and your body would still be processing it.
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Mar 9, 2016 12:01
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Victorkm posted:Time-Turners duplicate you for the hours you travel back in time, so you would still have eaten all of the food and your body would still be processing it. I think the deal is more that he would have a much longer perceived time between breakfast and lunch.
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Mar 9, 2016 16:15
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Trin Tragula posted:I still enjoy the bit where Harry encounters Snape for the first time. It's all downhill from there. Brace yourselves, everyone. We're about to go full John Galt.
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Mar 10, 2016 00:55
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inflatablefish posted:Brace yourselves, everyone. We're about to go full John Galt. Well we've already almost had the monologues. And there was the rapey poo poo earlier.
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Mar 10, 2016 02:24
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I look forward to hearing an eleven year old explain how unions and tenure are awful.
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Mar 10, 2016 03:03
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I've heard 40 YO dudes getting paid barely more than minimum wage working three jobs to keep their kids fed tell me about the evils of unions and welfare programs. Hearing anti-union stuff from a kid might be refreshing because I can at least pretend their ignorance comes from lack of experience. poo poo, when I got hired at Walmart, the first thing they made me do was watch a video about the evils of unions, after which they made it clear that even talking about unions in any capacity while employed by Walmart was grounds for immediate termination. In an at-will employment state, this was not an idle threat.
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Mar 10, 2016 08:05
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Pvt.Scott posted:I've heard 40 YO dudes getting paid barely more than minimum wage working three jobs to keep their kids fed tell me about the evils of unions and welfare programs. Hearing anti-union stuff from a kid might be refreshing because I can at least pretend their ignorance comes from lack of experience. Did they actually hire Pinkertons to come in and smash up your workspace a little if you talk about such things? As a warning? Because that's some gilded age poo poo.
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Mar 10, 2016 15:08
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Night10194 posted:Did they actually hire Pinkertons to come in and smash up your workspace a little if you talk about such things? As a warning? Because that's some gilded age poo poo. No, they'd just use it as a pretense to fire you if they didn't like you. I was working for them in Missouri, an at-will employment state. Missouri doesn't have any labor laws except a few involving minors in the entertainment industry, however they define that, and time and a half for anything past 40 hours. The rest of the labor protections only exist because they are federally mandated. Breaks, vacation, sick days, maximum allowable hours a week and a lot more stuff are entirely optional and between you and the employer as far as the state is concerned. Employers still provide those things currently because workers still expect them, but the longer things stay as economically lovely they are, the more likely those "perks" go out the window. Welcome to Middle American capitalism!
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Mar 10, 2016 16:09
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From last chapter: "...accelerated at top speed..." Excuse me lord physicist and master rationalist Yudkowsky, how can I continue to accelerate if I'm already at top speed? Did you mean achieving maximum acceleration? Am I missing something here or is he really that bad at what he claims is among his masteries? Also, writing. Because why not just say "running as fast as he could" is beyond me
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Mar 10, 2016 16:14
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He was accelerating as fast as possible to his maximum speed, so almost but not quite the speed of light, to reach a sprint or whatever. The fact that the acceleration period is negligible by human standards isn't the point. Also the fact that this is a paradox is explained by wizards.
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Mar 10, 2016 21:34
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Chapter 18: Dominance Hierarchies Part Two quote:
Or in much the same way, presumably, that quote:
Why doesn’t Eliezarry simply attribute it to Dumbledore being a negligent and/or downright malicious headmaster? Eliezarry’s just had a horrifying encounter with Dumbledore a few days ago, after all. quote:
Again, Dumbledore is the clearest and simplest answer for all things wrong in the school, and Eliezarry should be well aware of it. quote:
Yup, that soul-scarring experience is still fresh in his mind. So why doesn’t Eliezarry attribute the blame for all the other grievances to Dumbledore, the head of the school?
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Mar 11, 2016 08:28
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Ancient man did some pretty complicated math poo poo in his brain without the aid of writing, so I think Yud is making the false assumption that many historians do that people in the past were less intelligent or interested in knowledge than we are now. I would think the elders would have more leisure time and might welcome some mathematics.
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Mar 11, 2016 13:43
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Pvt.Scott posted:Ancient man did some pretty complicated math poo poo in his brain without the aid of writing, so I think Yud is making the false assumption that many historians do that people in the past were less intelligent or interested in knowledge than we are now. I would think the elders would have more leisure time and might welcome some mathematics. I'd be disappointed in Yud for falling into that trap, except he also applies it to future people looking back at our foolish Eld science so ??????? But in any case, imagine trying to explain to really intelligent people calculus and realise that you'd have to start from scratch, with presumably no aides (i.e. you've gone back to them, not brought them forward to you). I doubt many people would actually be able to explain from first principles how to do calculus, without the structure offered by modern day math. It's more likely the frown would be on the other foot.
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Mar 11, 2016 16:49
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Plus, guys like Yud look at the explanations for the world that older peoples came up with and go 'Oh how stupid' instead of being able to put themselves in those peoples' shoes. Coming up with an explanation for phenomena or learning your way around a complex or dangerous lifestyle at all is still a sign of reasoning and intelligence, even if it turns out that people with 2000 years of hindsight and generations upon generations of people building on doing what you're doing can say you were incorrect. The ancients were just as smart as we were. And just as dumb. Because they were human.
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Mar 11, 2016 17:00
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Come on now, I doubt it's possible for anyone to have been as dumb as Big Yud.
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Mar 11, 2016 18:18
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There is some sort of board of governors (and while Eliezarry probably doesn't know the exact structure its also generally not going to be a default assumption that a school is a sovereign entity unaccountable to literally anyone) so in theory even if dumbledore was in the way a significant enough public outcry would have them doing SOMETHING (the exact powers beyond removing the headmaster are unknown) though in practice with Lucius Malfoy on the board that's sure has hell not going to happen over Snape.
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Mar 11, 2016 23:48
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Cavelcade posted:But in any case, imagine trying to explain to really intelligent people calculus and realise that you'd have to start from scratch, with presumably no aides (i.e. you've gone back to them, not brought them forward to you). I doubt many people would actually be able to explain from first principles how to do calculus, without the structure offered by modern day math. Likewise I'm pretty sure you could explain a smartphone to Archimedes or Da Vinci. Those guys were probably smart enough to grasp the concept of binary and electricity and miniaturization and programming. You could give at least a third grade explanation that would satisfy the fundamental question "How does it work?" People are capable of understanding something conceptually that they do not fully comprehend intellectually, and people of any age who do math or engineering for a living are probably accustomed to thinking from concepts and ideas to concrete implementations.
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Mar 12, 2016 00:25
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Nakar posted:A Roman planner who builds aqueducts for a living would definitely be interested in whatever you can tell him about the differentiation of slopes and curves, and while he wouldn't have the pure mathematics set out to prove everything you're saying he could probably grasp the formulas and understand their application. "A way to finally calculate how many people are stealing water from the aquaducts? gently caress yeah."
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Mar 12, 2016 03:22
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Nakar posted:I think you could get further than you might think with certain people. Ancient Egyptian engineers, Hellenic mathematicians, medieval monks, whatever. Calculus would probably seem like kind of a confusing novelty to hunter-gatherers since they wouldn't have much use for it, but those other people would be very interested in whatever you could tell them about the subject and would probably be able to puzzle out whatever gaps you have in your education once they get the gist. A Roman planner who builds aqueducts for a living would definitely be interested in whatever you can tell him about the differentiation of slopes and curves, and while he wouldn't have the pure mathematics set out to prove everything you're saying he could probably grasp the formulas and understand their application. He specified cavemen which is why I went with that. Note that I don't think it's beyond the cavement to understand it - I just doubt most people could explain it in a meaningful way if they lack all the things we take for granted right now. With people who have a mathematical background, from a little later on in history, you might have a bit more success. It depends on you being willing to integrate into their system of thinking somewhat, and learning their language and such. Come to think of it, maybe they're frowning because this idiot in front of them keeps using words that they know, but the idiot clearly doesn't actually understand. It'd probably look a lot like what happens when Big Yug talks to people who know the subject matter he's discussing. The whole thing reminds me a bit of this MItchell and Webb sketch.
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Mar 12, 2016 15:36
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Chapter 18: Dominance Hierarchies Part Three quote:
Maybe there are deeper dungeon levels that contain more overtly magical features which just aren’t available to him yet because he’s just a first-year student, has he considered that, that entitled little brat? quote:
“Zabriskan Fontema” is a reference to a creature of the same name in E. E. Smith’s “Lensman” series, if I recall correctly. quote:
As a former Death Eater, Snape was kind of like an assassin for Voldemort, so the epithet is accurate. quote:
Wasn’t Eliezarry warned (multiple times) at the beginning of this chapter that Snape is a nasty fellow and to “keep [his] head down and don’t give [Snape] any reason to notice [him]”? Didn’t Eliezarry promise to “try not to draw Professor Snape’s attention”? How did Eliezarry forget all of this so quickly?
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Mar 17, 2016 09:34
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Because if he doesn't speak up, he can't take the piss out of the whole concept of Snape
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Mar 17, 2016 11:36
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Okay, so there are a lot of things that should be said about Snape. For example, being one of the "good guys" in the end doesn't excuse everything he did to his students. Snape literally became the thing Neville was most afraid of. He tormented a child until he became more terrifying to that child than the whole host of magical things that could kill him such as dementors and werewolves and death eaters. Not exactly ground breaking, but it's an important thing to say given the Albus Severus nonsense in the epilogue. I just don't think that this is the arena to say that in. Like, remember how the premise of this story was trying to apply science to magic? Potions would be a really great place to do that. But then I remembered that this is HPMOR, and Yud forgot his own premise long ago in favor of whatever the hell this is. I expect that whatever point he's trying to make will be handled with the usual grace that anything is handled in this story.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:10
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Eldataluta posted:Okay, so there are a lot of things that should be said about Snape. For example, being one of the "good guys" in the end doesn't excuse everything he did to his students. Snape literally became the thing Neville was most afraid of. He tormented a child until he became more terrifying to that child than the whole host of magical things that could kill him such as dementors and werewolves and death eaters. Not exactly ground breaking, but it's an important thing to say given the Albus Severus nonsense in the epilogue. The premise hasn't been forgotten, it just was never to apply science to magic. It's to apply Yud's Bayesian cargo cult philosophy. "Rationalism" is supposed to suggest scientific validity, but (as we've repeatedly explored in this thread) it's science-flavored nonsense. Secondarily, it's rather obviously a fantasy of Yud's to be able to be this much of an insufferable jerk as a child and get away with it through the mystical power of ~rationality~ that those pesky adults must bow to.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:27
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JosephWongKS posted:
Except that he really wasn't. At all.
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Mar 17, 2016 20:58
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Eldataluta posted:Snape literally became the thing Neville was most afraid of. He tormented a child until he became more terrifying to that child than the whole host of magical things that could kill him such as... death eaters. As a 13 year old, he was more frightened of Snape than he was of the people who tortured his parents into insanity.
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Mar 17, 2016 21:48
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JosephWongKS posted:“Zabriskan Fontema” is a reference to a creature of the same name in E. E. Smith’s “Lensman” series, if I recall correctly.
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Mar 17, 2016 21:56
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You know, you really should read My very favourite piece so far is The Rocket Alignment Problem.
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Mar 17, 2016 23:39
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wow this is pretentious garbage.
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Mar 17, 2016 23:54
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cptn_dr posted:As a 13 year old, he was more frightened of Snape than he was of the people who tortured his parents into insanity. turned out they were the same people ha ha ha
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Mar 18, 2016 00:58
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divabot posted:You know, you really should read I got about three sentences in before my eyes kind of glazed over and I began imagining dudes standing on top of rockets hitting themselves in the head with hammers.
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Mar 18, 2016 05:52
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divabot posted:You know, you really should read I somehow made it through that Rocket Alignment Problem. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Was it that fictional rocket engineers are bad at calculating curved trajectories and that MIRI are a bunch of obtuse unhelpful cunts?
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Mar 18, 2016 07:32
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Pvt.Scott posted:I somehow made it through that Rocket Alignment Problem. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Was it that fictional rocket engineers are bad at calculating curved trajectories and that MIRI are a bunch of obtuse unhelpful cunts? It's that all of their philosophical musing is actually useful science, because only by understanding
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Mar 18, 2016 19:26
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divabot posted:You know, you really should read They're trying to replace Wikipedia with this, yeah? But this is doing something completely different to what wiki is. This is trying to convince people about something (and by something I mean the same thing they're always to convince people of). The entire point of wiki, and its usefulness, is as an information tool. Sure, you can't necessarily trust it blindly but it always has references you can check (and if it doesn't, you know to be extra wary). That's why it won't ever replace wiki. It doesn't even make sense to think of it that way. Edit: Besides which, rocketry seems like a particularly bizarre choice. Does anyone know why this might actually be considered a good analogy? Is it his usual AI-go-FOOM nonsense? It is, isn't it? Double edit: Wait, I'm all wrong. This is a site designed to compete with fanfiction.net! Now it all makes sense, he just wants a better place to host methods of rationality! Cavelcade fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 21:32
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