This is an extremely uncharitable reading of Eliezer’s intent. Remember, he did the same thing with “Three Worlds Collide”, and in Chapter 9 of HPMoR, and in Chapter 81 of HPMoR. Would you say he wrote himself into a corner in all those places as well?
I only read 3WC after the fact, so I can’t comment on that one. But I don’t recall him saying ”...solve this problem or you get the bad ending” in he previous HPMoR chapters...
I only read 3WC after the fact, so I can’t comment on that one.
Yes you can. Simply look at the time stamps for each post and do simple math. By making the assumption that only “people who were there” can answer correctly, you’re giving up solving your own problem before even trying.
Well, yes, because those chapters weren’t anywhere close to the ending. (Though, if I recall correctly, he did say that whoever guessed the answer to Chapter 9 would be told the entire rest of the plot, which isn’t quite the same as “earn your happy ending”, but it’s similar.)
Still, that notwithstanding, do you honestly think Eliezer is doing this because, of all things, he ran out of ideas? That seems… somewhat unlikely to me, given his previous track record.
(Of course, Poe’s Law is in full effect on this one, and if you were in fact joking in your original comment, then I apologize for any misunderstanding.)
No, I was serious, sorry. But, seeing as I believe that Eliezer is human like the rest of us, I think it’s entirely plausible that he ran out of ideas (or, at least, out of good ideas) -- kind of analogous to writing a program so clever that the author cannot debug it...
True, but seeing as he has stated that he had the entire plot planned out from the beginning, for him to have run out of ideas would require him to have been actively lying to us.
I’m not sure what “having the entire plot planned out from the beginning” really means, though. Eliezer ends up retconning things relatively frequently, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a plot point like “Voldemort captures Harry” followed by “Harry escapes”, but with too few details in between to make the logic ironclad.
If HPMoR was a conventional book, then Eliezer would have a lot of time to edit it and make all the retcons behind the scenes—even fairly major ones—but it isn’t, so he can’t.
This is an extremely uncharitable reading of Eliezer’s intent. Remember, he did the same thing with “Three Worlds Collide”, and in Chapter 9 of HPMoR, and in Chapter 81 of HPMoR. Would you say he wrote himself into a corner in all those places as well?
I only read 3WC after the fact, so I can’t comment on that one. But I don’t recall him saying ”...solve this problem or you get the bad ending” in he previous HPMoR chapters...
Yes you can. Simply look at the time stamps for each post and do simple math. By making the assumption that only “people who were there” can answer correctly, you’re giving up solving your own problem before even trying.
Well, yes, because those chapters weren’t anywhere close to the ending. (Though, if I recall correctly, he did say that whoever guessed the answer to Chapter 9 would be told the entire rest of the plot, which isn’t quite the same as “earn your happy ending”, but it’s similar.)
Still, that notwithstanding, do you honestly think Eliezer is doing this because, of all things, he ran out of ideas? That seems… somewhat unlikely to me, given his previous track record.
(Of course, Poe’s Law is in full effect on this one, and if you were in fact joking in your original comment, then I apologize for any misunderstanding.)
No, I was serious, sorry. But, seeing as I believe that Eliezer is human like the rest of us, I think it’s entirely plausible that he ran out of ideas (or, at least, out of good ideas) -- kind of analogous to writing a program so clever that the author cannot debug it...
True, but seeing as he has stated that he had the entire plot planned out from the beginning, for him to have run out of ideas would require him to have been actively lying to us.
I’m not sure what “having the entire plot planned out from the beginning” really means, though. Eliezer ends up retconning things relatively frequently, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a plot point like “Voldemort captures Harry” followed by “Harry escapes”, but with too few details in between to make the logic ironclad.
If HPMoR was a conventional book, then Eliezer would have a lot of time to edit it and make all the retcons behind the scenes—even fairly major ones—but it isn’t, so he can’t.