… 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.
Yeah, and I am kind of surprised that neither Quirrellmort nor Harry thought of reversing the letters. I mean, we are dealing with a magical mirror here. How is this not the first thing they’ve tried ?
I get the feeling from Voldemort’s comments and Harry’s thoughts that the Letters of False Comprehension have a mind affecting power that prevents you from understanding them. I think the inversion is a joke for the readers.
I assumed the inversion was because the mirror was somehow reflecting the phrase, or at least that it’s some kind of artistic flair meant to suggest so.
Well, yes. The False Comprehension Charm is precisely a very narrow Confundus charm that makes a person’s brain unable to process these letters—by substituting a convenient, wrong, preprocessed ‘answer’.
Can the mirror be used to hack the Time Turner restriction? GAH!
Also, reading the letter backwards:
Is how not your face but your coherent extrapolated volition .
“I show...”
Ah, doh. That certainly makes more sense.
… 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.
Yeah, and I am kind of surprised that neither Quirrellmort nor Harry thought of reversing the letters. I mean, we are dealing with a magical mirror here. How is this not the first thing they’ve tried ?
I get the feeling from Voldemort’s comments and Harry’s thoughts that the Letters of False Comprehension have a mind affecting power that prevents you from understanding them. I think the inversion is a joke for the readers.
I assumed the inversion was because the mirror was somehow reflecting the phrase, or at least that it’s some kind of artistic flair meant to suggest so.
The letters are in reverse order, but not mirrored. No wonder they didn’t think of that!
It wouldn’t fit the narrative. (Just like it didn’t fit the narrative in canon, so nobody pointed it out there, either.)
Maybe the mirror has some kind of very narrow Confundus charm, that makes a person’s brain unable to process these letters? ;)
Well, yes. The False Comprehension Charm is precisely a very narrow Confundus charm that makes a person’s brain unable to process these letters—by substituting a convenient, wrong, preprocessed ‘answer’.
The inscription is not in the Latin alphabet.