I don’t expect a huge explication necessarily: Harry will just realize that a certain degree of self-consistency and pre-commitment will let him resolve paradoxes that ordinarily result from time travel.
TDT is a major focus of his academic work. And AI is already covered (Harry’s ballooning capabilties and pseudo-superpowers once introduced to magic represent the nigh-magical capacities a FOOMING AI should have) so TDT could come next.
My first question was for literary reasons—I don’t expect TDT to be involved in any significant resolution unless it has been at least mentioned in the text previously, prefereably with some explanation.
I’m not convinced of the analogy to AI-FOOM. Harry’s capabilities and pseudo superpowers are the result of intelligence and rationality applied to magic, not of recursive intelligence amplification giving far greater levels of intelligence. It has been explicitly said somewhere that AI will not be involved in the resolution, so I’m not particularly worried about that.
Additionally, since this Harry lacks Eliezer’s interest and previous work on advanced decision theory
(TDT was created because he needed a reflectively consistent decision theory), and I don’t see any reason for Haryy to have developed TDT. I suppose it could be treated like the hedonic treadmill and feeding your inner pigeon work, but that seems unlikely.
Transhumanism and Reductionism don’t seem to be in the same class as TDT to me, so even if your proposed schema about how Harry gains superpowers was right, I don’t think TDT would be next, or really in the running. TDT seems much more like a technical achievement than a philosophical viewpoint to me.
Harry has already relied on timeless physics to invent partial transfiguration, and his decision theory since the first chapters has included timeless elements too. It’s not too big a step.
Harry relates to AI because he is a disruptively intelligent force using his superior intelligence in ways totally unexpected and supposedly impossible to the existing wizarding populace. Nothing to do with feedback loops, more the “general relativity from a video of an apple falling” stuff. And his unpredictability terrifies even Quirrell, who he has clearly surpassed on some dimensions if not others.
I don’t think TDT will be mentioned explicitly, but Harry’s use of time-turners has been building in complexity. I think the time is ripe for him to break the supposed rules, just like he broke the rules of Patronuses and transfiguration. And it seems like Timeless decision making first perfectly with Time Turners.
Actually, I misspoke—IIRC, it was about FOOM, not superitelligence ; that Harry won’t build an FAI to solve the story, and that the story is not about AI, not that it will have no part in it. I don’t recall where exactly, but it was associated with the saying about “a fanatic is someone who only cares about one thing, and can’t change the subject”.
I don’t expect a huge explication necessarily: Harry will just realize that a certain degree of self-consistency and pre-commitment will let him resolve paradoxes that ordinarily result from time travel.
TDT is a major focus of his academic work. And AI is already covered (Harry’s ballooning capabilties and pseudo-superpowers once introduced to magic represent the nigh-magical capacities a FOOMING AI should have) so TDT could come next.
My first question was for literary reasons—I don’t expect TDT to be involved in any significant resolution unless it has been at least mentioned in the text previously, prefereably with some explanation.
I’m not convinced of the analogy to AI-FOOM. Harry’s capabilities and pseudo superpowers are the result of intelligence and rationality applied to magic, not of recursive intelligence amplification giving far greater levels of intelligence. It has been explicitly said somewhere that AI will not be involved in the resolution, so I’m not particularly worried about that.
Additionally, since this Harry lacks Eliezer’s interest and previous work on advanced decision theory (TDT was created because he needed a reflectively consistent decision theory), and I don’t see any reason for Haryy to have developed TDT. I suppose it could be treated like the hedonic treadmill and feeding your inner pigeon work, but that seems unlikely.
Transhumanism and Reductionism don’t seem to be in the same class as TDT to me, so even if your proposed schema about how Harry gains superpowers was right, I don’t think TDT would be next, or really in the running. TDT seems much more like a technical achievement than a philosophical viewpoint to me.
Harry has already relied on timeless physics to invent partial transfiguration, and his decision theory since the first chapters has included timeless elements too. It’s not too big a step.
Harry relates to AI because he is a disruptively intelligent force using his superior intelligence in ways totally unexpected and supposedly impossible to the existing wizarding populace. Nothing to do with feedback loops, more the “general relativity from a video of an apple falling” stuff. And his unpredictability terrifies even Quirrell, who he has clearly surpassed on some dimensions if not others.
I don’t think TDT will be mentioned explicitly, but Harry’s use of time-turners has been building in complexity. I think the time is ripe for him to break the supposed rules, just like he broke the rules of Patronuses and transfiguration. And it seems like Timeless decision making first perfectly with Time Turners.
Where?
Interesting. A superintelligence keyed to wearers of the genetic marker was my best guess. Where was that said?
Actually, I misspoke—IIRC, it was about FOOM, not superitelligence ; that Harry won’t build an FAI to solve the story, and that the story is not about AI, not that it will have no part in it. I don’t recall where exactly, but it was associated with the saying about “a fanatic is someone who only cares about one thing, and can’t change the subject”.