“HE IS HERE. THE ONE WHO WILL TEAR APART THE VERY STARS IN HEAVEN. HE IS HERE. HE IS THE END OF THE >WORLD.”
What exactly does this mean? Both Quirrel and Harry Potter are already here. Sirius no longer seems feasible for this.
Possibly it refers to the new personality-state of Harry which Quirrel just sensed? I suspect that Harry has just succeeded what he failed to do in Azkaban: to fuse his normal self with the grim and ardently indomitable dark side.
Prediction 1: Soon, Harrry will do something somewhat clearly allegorical to FOOMed super AI.
Alternatively, Prediction 2: Instead, Harry will be incredibly badass (I.e, Quirrel’s equal) more conventionally.
Prediction 3: Harry will be able to get some real resources finally. He might somehow get enough mana to pull off Quirrelesque blasting, or find a creative/technological-seeming way to provide it.
Prediction 4: Harry’s involvement in
The version starting with “HE IS COMING” was given the same chapter and same day that Harry and Draco formed the Bayesian Conspiracy.
Horrible half-prophecies occurred when Harry pondered the distinction between ruthless war and the superhero’s quest to save everyone. This would lead to him deciding to be ruthless if he failed to save anyone (in Ch 85), and the closest possible person just did. At this time a phoenix came to Harry, and then left.
Trelawney suffered a horrible half-prophecy when Harry decided that he would break Azkaban even if it meant going to absurd lengths.
I thought earlier about the first prophecy, that ‘the power to vanquish the dark lord’ might refer to the ability to destroy Death rather than Voldemort.
Harry could disassemble the world and the stars into computronium—in fact star-lifting crossed his mind when he heard the first part of the prophecy. EY stated that there would be no AI analogy, and magical intelligence amplification seems more plausible anyway.
A different route to a mini-foom is that one can make luck potions. Then gamble, get money, recruit people who know how to make potions. Now you have huge amounts of luck potion, and provided your thought process is fairly random, you will always find the right answer (e.g. opening a random book at a random page happens to provide exactly the right insight).
Routes to magical IA:
Luck potions.
A thinking hat—like the sorting hat, only it uses your brainpower to help you solve problems.
Efficient use of memory charms to spread insights rapidly through a group of researchers.
Use of telepathy to create a group mind.
Potion of thinking, made of e.g. ground-up crossword puzzles.
Maybe incorporating books into the potion would give you literary skills and declarative knowledge, while computer printouts give fast computation skills? Better throw some birthday cards and essays on ethics in there too, to try and encourage friendliness :)
A thinking hat—like the sorting hat, only it uses your brainpower to help you solve problems.
You mean like the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw? which may not exist in the Rationalverse, as it’s potentially OP. Especially if Harry gets his hands on it.
You know, a heavy dose of luck potion would almost justify messing with time. I still don’t see any way to fake a failed ghost creation without transfiguring a witch or wizard. (Though in principle, Imperio would remove the need for a volunteer.) A few hours does not seem like enough time to grok ghosts in fullness and produce a guaranteed failure. Nor do you want any uncertainty. Never let under-determined Outcome Pump Physics decide if your plan will really preserve the appearances most efficiently, or if the Universe should create Uplifted utahraptors to stop you.
Possibility: Normal harry and his Dark Side have now merged (or Harry has lost his restraint to the extent the distinction is irrelevant). This new Harry has all his abilities and none of his previous restraint and is effectively a new person, with the expressly stated intention of changing the world that now exists to the extent it is effectively destroyed.
Secondary possibility: The current ‘world’ will end because Harry is going to somehow turn back time and destroy thus timeline in its entirety.
Soon, Harrry will do something somewhat clearly allegorical to FOOMed super AI.
Eliezer has stated that nothing in HPMOR is allegory for AI. I don’t have a source for the quote, but I remember it very clearly, because it surprised me.
Early on, when Harry was so much smarter and more focused than the adults at Hogwarts, I assumed it was an allegory for dealing with an AI. Admittedly on a small scale, but the small scale is a hint to lead to comprehension that the large scale is, well, larger.
Something to note—A Singularity, of whatever kind, is generally held (citation needed) to be the point at which a pre-Singularity being can make no useful predictions about a post-Singularity being, usually due to runaway growth of intelligence.
It is very much a metaphorical “end of the world” for a pre-Singularity being, and prophecies are nothing if not metaphorical.
Fair enough. The Intelligence Explosion variant has the same net effect on a layperson, though: an absolutely alien world, with such strange people in it.
I’m surprised to see everyone overlook the most obvious possibility: Voldemort.
Point one: The earlier prophecy was probably about the same person, and he hadn’t arrived yet at the moment. Even if it was about something different. ‘he has come’ in the last prophecy implies that he had just arrived.
Point two: Voldemort appears to love destruction. I still don’t know how someone as intelligent as him hadn’t killed everyone in the ways Harry thought of -. Harry’s intent to kill, which is presumably very Voldemort-like, is extremely creative and effective even at his magic level and age. But assuming that Voldemort is about destruction, he might want to end the world.
Quirrell or someone (e.g. Snape) might have resurrected Voldemort right after stealing the Philosopher’s Stone—a time-turner may be involved.. Dumbledore was away, Snape might be unreliable, it could have easily happened. A counterindicator is that Dumbledore is probably also aware of this risk, and therefore might have taken counter-measurements, although we can see that Quirrell can fool him in the part where he learns about the zoomagus potion left in Bellatrix’s cell (though it portrays himself and Snape as significantly inferior to Voldemort and Quirrell, so I’m reluctant to believe it was real, rather than them acting in front of McGonagall).
What exactly does this mean? Both Quirrel and Harry Potter are already here. Sirius no longer seems feasible for this.
Possibly it refers to the new personality-state of Harry which Quirrel just sensed? I suspect that Harry has just succeeded what he failed to do in Azkaban: to fuse his normal self with the grim and ardently indomitable dark side.
Prediction 1: Soon, Harrry will do something somewhat clearly allegorical to FOOMed super AI. Alternatively, Prediction 2: Instead, Harry will be incredibly badass (I.e, Quirrel’s equal) more conventionally. Prediction 3: Harry will be able to get some real resources finally. He might somehow get enough mana to pull off Quirrelesque blasting, or find a creative/technological-seeming way to provide it. Prediction 4: Harry’s involvement in
The version starting with “HE IS COMING” was given the same chapter and same day that Harry and Draco formed the Bayesian Conspiracy.
Horrible half-prophecies occurred when Harry pondered the distinction between ruthless war and the superhero’s quest to save everyone. This would lead to him deciding to be ruthless if he failed to save anyone (in Ch 85), and the closest possible person just did. At this time a phoenix came to Harry, and then left.
Trelawney suffered a horrible half-prophecy when Harry decided that he would break Azkaban even if it meant going to absurd lengths.
I thought earlier about the first prophecy, that ‘the power to vanquish the dark lord’ might refer to the ability to destroy Death rather than Voldemort.
Harry could disassemble the world and the stars into computronium—in fact star-lifting crossed his mind when he heard the first part of the prophecy. EY stated that there would be no AI analogy, and magical intelligence amplification seems more plausible anyway.
A different route to a mini-foom is that one can make luck potions. Then gamble, get money, recruit people who know how to make potions. Now you have huge amounts of luck potion, and provided your thought process is fairly random, you will always find the right answer (e.g. opening a random book at a random page happens to provide exactly the right insight). Routes to magical IA:
Luck potions.
A thinking hat—like the sorting hat, only it uses your brainpower to help you solve problems.
Efficient use of memory charms to spread insights rapidly through a group of researchers.
Use of telepathy to create a group mind.
Potion of thinking, made of e.g. ground-up crossword puzzles.
Potion of… OH CRUD.
Buy supercomputer time to solve problems in some physical form. Melt printouts into potion. Foom.
Maybe incorporating books into the potion would give you literary skills and declarative knowledge, while computer printouts give fast computation skills? Better throw some birthday cards and essays on ethics in there too, to try and encourage friendliness :)
You mean like the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw? which may not exist in the Rationalverse, as it’s potentially OP. Especially if Harry gets his hands on it.
You know, a heavy dose of luck potion would almost justify messing with time. I still don’t see any way to fake a failed ghost creation without transfiguring a witch or wizard. (Though in principle, Imperio would remove the need for a volunteer.) A few hours does not seem like enough time to grok ghosts in fullness and produce a guaranteed failure. Nor do you want any uncertainty. Never let under-determined Outcome Pump Physics decide if your plan will really preserve the appearances most efficiently, or if the Universe should create Uplifted utahraptors to stop you.
Possibility: Normal harry and his Dark Side have now merged (or Harry has lost his restraint to the extent the distinction is irrelevant). This new Harry has all his abilities and none of his previous restraint and is effectively a new person, with the expressly stated intention of changing the world that now exists to the extent it is effectively destroyed.
Secondary possibility: The current ‘world’ will end because Harry is going to somehow turn back time and destroy thus timeline in its entirety.
Eliezer has stated that nothing in HPMOR is allegory for AI. I don’t have a source for the quote, but I remember it very clearly, because it surprised me.
Early on, when Harry was so much smarter and more focused than the adults at Hogwarts, I assumed it was an allegory for dealing with an AI. Admittedly on a small scale, but the small scale is a hint to lead to comprehension that the large scale is, well, larger.
I believe this is meant to be interpreted in the same sense as CS Lewis’s claim that Aslan isn’t an allegory for Jesus.
Quote ? I think the 7th book of the chronicles of Narnia clearly establishes that Aslan IS, in fact, Jesus in a very litteral sense.
… that Aslan is Jesus, rather than merely an allegory?
Something to note—A Singularity, of whatever kind, is generally held (citation needed) to be the point at which a pre-Singularity being can make no useful predictions about a post-Singularity being, usually due to runaway growth of intelligence.
It is very much a metaphorical “end of the world” for a pre-Singularity being, and prophecies are nothing if not metaphorical.
Not around these parts.
Fair enough. The Intelligence Explosion variant has the same net effect on a layperson, though: an absolutely alien world, with such strange people in it.
Ohhhh…
Quirrel is in for a very, very nasty suprise. Very good day my binary-search-for-enemies-of-the-Verresian-Empire ass.
To me, all of this is more evidence towards the Harrymort branches; Harry’s dark side finally has the ability to directly sway Harrys actions.
Also note that Harry is explicitly not counting the possibility that his own actions have been affected by memory charms, etc...
I’m surprised to see everyone overlook the most obvious possibility: Voldemort.
Point one: The earlier prophecy was probably about the same person, and he hadn’t arrived yet at the moment. Even if it was about something different. ‘he has come’ in the last prophecy implies that he had just arrived.
Point two: Voldemort appears to love destruction. I still don’t know how someone as intelligent as him hadn’t killed everyone in the ways Harry thought of -. Harry’s intent to kill, which is presumably very Voldemort-like, is extremely creative and effective even at his magic level and age. But assuming that Voldemort is about destruction, he might want to end the world.
Quirrell or someone (e.g. Snape) might have resurrected Voldemort right after stealing the Philosopher’s Stone—a time-turner may be involved.. Dumbledore was away, Snape might be unreliable, it could have easily happened. A counterindicator is that Dumbledore is probably also aware of this risk, and therefore might have taken counter-measurements, although we can see that Quirrell can fool him in the part where he learns about the zoomagus potion left in Bellatrix’s cell (though it portrays himself and Snape as significantly inferior to Voldemort and Quirrell, so I’m reluctant to believe it was real, rather than them acting in front of McGonagall).