… which is exactly what the mirror would say, if this were a parody of Eliezer-written Harry Potter-fanfiction.
(On the other hand, Eliezer frequently likes to play some pretty absurd things straight (the Comed-Tea induced Quibbler headline, the Yaoi fangirls, …), so … I’m not quite sure what to think. My estimate for P(the ending of HPMoR will be incomprehensible to non-LWers) just went up a bit, but not by much.)
Still, one could think there is not a huge difference between “heart’s desire” and “coherent extrapolated volition” anyway, so it is not that unreasonable.
We don’t know that he took it from there. Note that his comment saying “Great idea!” was posted after the chapter in which he did it so it’s clearly joking to some extent. For all we know, Eliezer may have had that plan long before pedanterrific said anything.
… which is exactly what the mirror would say, if this were a parody of Eliezer-written Harry Potter-fanfiction.
(On the other hand, Eliezer frequently likes to play some pretty absurd things straight (the Comed-Tea induced Quibbler headline, the Yaoi fangirls, …), so … I’m not quite sure what to think. My estimate for P(the ending of HPMoR will be incomprehensible to non-LWers) just went up a bit, but not by much.)
I think the reason this looks like a parody is that it is not an original idea. Eliezer took it from here (http://lesswrong.com/lw/7jd/harry_potter_and_the_methods_of_rationality/4wqy), presumably because he thought it was funny.
Still, one could think there is not a huge difference between “heart’s desire” and “coherent extrapolated volition” anyway, so it is not that unreasonable.
We don’t know that he took it from there. Note that his comment saying “Great idea!” was posted after the chapter in which he did it so it’s clearly joking to some extent. For all we know, Eliezer may have had that plan long before pedanterrific said anything.