Requesting clarification on a point in reply to this post because it doesn’t deserve it’s own Discussion post but I want to know, and since the core question is Muggle Plots I can’t think of a better point.
Basically, I’m not sure whether the following hypothetical scenario counts as a “Muggle Plot” (in Elizier’s sense of a plot a rationalist would easily be able to avert) or not. The scenario:
-An individual, A, splits into two individuals (called B and C for distinction). This is a philosophical style fission- in every sense in which it is physically possible, B and C are each identical to the original.
-A was and B and C are selfish individuals. B and C get into a serious fight (let’s say a fight to the death, though I think that’s peripheral) over Selfish Gain X, a gain which one of them can have but not both by it’s nature. There is no intelligent solution to the problem of X that gives both of them even 50% of what they want.
Although many people here would argue that this is a Muggle Plot as B and C are the same individual, I see no contradiction in B and C’s semi-utility functions in acting selfishly and ignoring the other’s desires. However, given arguments that A, B, and C are the same person some people might call it irrational.
Not what I’d call a Muggle Plot, no. See also, The Fate of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Can be read without its predecessor novel.
Requesting clarification on a point in reply to this post because it doesn’t deserve it’s own Discussion post but I want to know, and since the core question is Muggle Plots I can’t think of a better point.
Basically, I’m not sure whether the following hypothetical scenario counts as a “Muggle Plot” (in Elizier’s sense of a plot a rationalist would easily be able to avert) or not. The scenario:
-An individual, A, splits into two individuals (called B and C for distinction). This is a philosophical style fission- in every sense in which it is physically possible, B and C are each identical to the original.
-A was and B and C are selfish individuals. B and C get into a serious fight (let’s say a fight to the death, though I think that’s peripheral) over Selfish Gain X, a gain which one of them can have but not both by it’s nature. There is no intelligent solution to the problem of X that gives both of them even 50% of what they want.
Although many people here would argue that this is a Muggle Plot as B and C are the same individual, I see no contradiction in B and C’s semi-utility functions in acting selfishly and ignoring the other’s desires. However, given arguments that A, B, and C are the same person some people might call it irrational.
Not what I’d call a Muggle Plot, no. See also, The Fate of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Can be read without its predecessor novel.