tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34124595962375141452024-03-07T21:46:15.268-08:00Methods of Rationality Sucks"a wonderful journey through the land of the pretentious."Mordachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100002043018736724noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412459596237514145.post-62639311623081362092010-06-08T13:28:00.000-07:002010-07-01T15:04:59.451-07:00Methods Two: Electric BugalooAand, we're back.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Chapter 2: Everything I Believe Is False</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />Including that belief?<br /><br />Anyway, we start with <span style="font-style: italic;">"#include "stddisclaimer.h""</span>. Because Yudkowsky can write code, and we've got to know it!<br /><br />We start <span style="font-style: italic;">for real</span> with another unrelated tidbit. Wait, are these supposed to be quotes? If so, they're really random, because at least the one from last chapter didn't have anything to do with the chapter's events, or indeed, anything that's ever happened in the fic.<br /><br />After this bit of pointlessness, we cut to Harry adjudicating between his parents on the conditions of the experiment. It's not said at first, but in order to make my recap of the scene more consistent I'll give away that McGonagall is there. She has agreed to levitate Prof. Dawkins, to prove to him magic is real. Harry is trying to set up the conditions of the experiment, so that there will be no loopholes the losing advocate can claim to preserve his position. So, Dawkins cannot claim that he was being raised by invisible wires, while Petunia cannot claim that magic does not work on 'unbelievers'.<br /><br />This... is actually pretty good, though once again, it goes against what he stated earlier, that <span style="font-style: italic;">"the <span style="font-weight: bold;">only</span> rule is that the final arbiter is observation." </span> Clearly, that is not the case, otherwise we wouldn't need these sorts of pre-experience condition setting. I reiterate: what is being taught here is an important lesson, it's only too bad the author undermines it at every turn. I would have placed a greater emphasis on falsifiability, to show how the experience is directed at, and by, the theoretical constructs that it seeks to test - it doesn't exist in a vacuum of unbiased, neutral observation.<br /><br />McGonagall watches the proceedings indulgently, before finally asking whether Harry is quite finished. He replies that nothing he does will probably be enough, but he's given it due diligence, and gives her the go signal.<br /><br />She complies, performing the charm that lifts Dawkins two feet into the air.<br /><br />Everyone seems rather nonplussed when this works, including Dawkins, who quickly tells her to put him down.<br /><br />Harry voices the feelings of readers everywhere by noting that was rather anticlimatic. Of course, there was no reason for it to be; Harry thinks that the reason he felt to nonchalant about the whole thing was because in his heart of hearts, he already believed magic to be true, but I find this a little implausible. There is a difference between intellectually believing something to be possible and actually experiencing it; I bet the Wright brothers were still pretty damn amazed when their plane actually flew, regardless of the fact that they knew it probably would.<br /><br />He then says one of those lines that really must be repeated:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"You'd think there'd be some kind of more dramatic mental event associated with executing a Bayesian update on an observation of infinitesimal probability[.]"</span><br /><br />First, what does this have to do with what happened? For those not in the know, Bayesian updating is taking the initial probabilities of an event, throw in another one, and calculate the probabilities of the former knowing given that we know the latter happens. Yudkowsky makes this sound really arcane, despite the fact that I learned how to do it in 12th grade; some of you readers may have done it earlier.<br /><br />But the point is, what update is he doing. He is not considering the probability of another event - the only event that was being talked about was his dad floating. He's already seen it, so what is this <span style="font-style: italic;">"observation of infinitesimal probability"</span> he's talking about? It may be that it's implied somewhere and I'm just too dumb to see it, but I don't think the text makes it clear at all. Maybe there is some sort of use of Bayesian updating I'm not familiar with, but that just makes the following point more relevant.<br /><br />Second, there is no point in couching this in deliberately arcane language to make it sound impressive to the <span style="font-style: italic;">hoi polloi</span>, except to showcase how brilliant Yudkowsky thinks he is. This is made all the more clear when everyone looks at Harry with, and I quote, <span style="font-style: italic;">"that look"</span>. He cuts off his impromptu lecture and sums it up for the uninitiated, <span style="font-style: italic;">"I mean, with finding out that everything I believe is false[,]"</span> which is not only not true (I'd wager at least a majority of the things he believes, such as that he lives in... wherever the hell it is he lives anyway, he has no reason to doubt), but has nothing to do with the jargon used earlier.<br /><br />The feeling of anticlimax becomes more understandable, though, when Harry thinks that he expected his brain to be discarding the hypotheses it had about the universe, which of course conflicted with the possibility of magic levitation. If <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> was what he was expecting, then I don't blame him for finding it anticlimactic - I think it would take time for a person's worldview to perform such a tectonic shift, and to be honest I have no idea why he would expect it to be otherwise.<br /><br />He's starting to wonder what to do next when McGonagall finally segues into asking him if he needs any further demonstration. Harry protests he doesn't need it, since they already did one experiment (replication? what's that?). However, his curiosity wins out over his notions of <span style="font-style: italic;">rigueur</span>, and he prods McG to show them another trick.<br /><br />Of course, she turns into a cat, and this is described by writing just that. It's seriously unbelievable, the deadpan way in which this is described, just like he had written - <span style="font-style: italic;">'she took out the trash'</span>. Even the pureblood kids, who had been surrounded by magic all their lives, were impressed by this when she did it in her class in PoA. And to his credit, Harry does stumble backward and performs some slapstick routine, but there is no description of what he's experiencing, so the whole thing feels out of place. Indeed, one of the biggest problems through the entirety of this fic is how bipolar it seems, especially because the moods it conveys seem so inappropriate at times considering what is happening. But I am getting ahead of myself here. We'll see a lot of this later on anyway, much more flagrantly.<br /><br />McGonagall apologizes for startling him, though in her way, she seems smugly satisfied at doing so.<br /><br />Then, we are informed that Harry was <span style="font-style: italic;">"Harry was breathing in <span style="font-weight: bold;">short pants</span>."</span>. I have to admit, I spend a bit trying to figure out why he was breathing a piece of clothing, before I realized this meant to convey he was <span style="font-style: italic;">panting</span>. The phrasing seems awkward to me, but perhaps it's just because I'm not a native speaker, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt here.<br /><br />Harry goes from emotional detachment to sounding like someone suffering from a panic attack, protesting at McG, in a choked voice, that she just <span style="font-style: italic;">can't</span> do that. Now this seems more plausible, but just leaves us wondering why it didn't happen before. What's so different about now?<br /><br />McGonagall says it's all child's play for her, but Harry just blazes ahead with a lecture about how it violates conservation of energy, and by implication quantum mechanics and general relativity, since it allows for FTL (written like this, presumably 'spoken' like this also) signaling. Like I said, I haven't had physics since the 9th grade, so I'll take Yudkowsky's word for all this. Harry also expresses puzzlement at being able to replicate all of a cat's [biological] complexity, and going on thinking with the brain of a cat.<br /><br />Now, doesn't floating unaided also break tons of laws of physics? Granted, the wider implications may be smaller, but still, it's a difference of degree, not kind, so why didn't all this come out earlier? And why wasn't there a description of Harry feeling the enormity of this, rather than the deadpan <span style="font-style: italic;">"[she] turned into a cat[?]"</span><br /><br />McGonagall, getting even smugger, says it's just magic, to which Harry protests that magic isn't enough for that - she'd have to be a god. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. God appears with a small g, so I take it Harry is referring to the limited gods of, say, Greek religion. But if he is, once again, it's kind of hard to draw a line. Transfiguration, even self transfiguration, is one of the most prevalent abilities of wizards in folklore, and believers in those religions could tell them apart from the gods well enough. One might perhaps say that, once again, gods are just <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> powerful than humans, even human wizards, in this type of theology, and that does seem to be a difference of degree like what Harry has in mind here, but it wasn't really thought that transfiguration was this type of divine ability (I welcome readers to prove me wrong with the ancient religion of the natives of some obscure pacific island), so why draw the line here? Gods were also probably distinguished more by the positions of responsibility they held, in governing the universe, but that seems inapposite here. Also, gods were still held to some sort of external higher law - if that is what Harry has in mind here, when he says wizards shouldn't be able to do it because of all those physics related things, then being gods would not necessarily get them out of the pickle.<br /><br />If, on the other hand, he has in mind the all-powerful, transcendent God of Abrahamic religions, then this seems a really inappropriate comparison. Having created the universe and established its laws to begin with, and having the perfect knowledge of everything that ever was, is or will be, is completely above creation and different in kind, and obviously free to work above the laws He created, but by definition He's only One, so He wouldn't be proposing to teach Harry how to turn into a cat, and wouldn't be performing tricks like that in the first place, for no discernible purpose.<br /><br />Either way, McG does some <span style="font-style: italic;">faux</span> modesty act, and Harry goes through some sort of weird rhapsodic flashback through the history of western civilization, at least as it pertains to scientific discoveries, which he sees as being thrown out because a woman turned into a cat. I really don't see how this is so - most of the physics still apply, in the specific circumstances where magic is not involved, kind of like how classical mechanics still apply at high dimensions and low speeds. All you'd need is a general theory for where magic is involved. Sure, this is easier said than done, but my point is that you wouldn't need to trash everything else. Not to mention, social sciences would go on more or less undisturbed, but I guess he does not consider them sciences, so that's that.<br /><br />There's also an hilarious attempt to tack on identity theory, which is a specific philosophy of mind, a subtype of physicalism, to be more precise, and pass it off as one of the scientific theories magic discards. I'll quote:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"[T]he mind was the brain and the brain was made of neurons and if you damaged the brain the mind lost the corresponding ability, destroy the hippocampus and the person lost the ability to form new memories, a brain was what a person was[.]"</span><br /><br />The level of gamesmanship present here would be impressive if it wasn't so disgusting. The subtlety of inserting this at the end of a string of <span style="font-style: italic;">bona fide</span> scientific theories, to give the impression that this philosophical position is science, and therefore completely objective and true, unlike philosophy, is incredible. It's because of these things that I write this blog. This may seem just like an inoffensive fic, but it's plainly an indoctrination tool, sending these subliminal messages to drag uninformed people, who don't know any better, into the author's worldview.<br /><br />There is nothing wrong with doing philosophy of mind - it's a subject I happen to enjoy - but there is something wrong about dressing a particular position as science and using the moniker as a battering ram against the opposition.<br /><br />Besides, I thought Yudkowsky's crew were all functionalists, anyway.<br /><br />Harry randomly segues into the incantation for the levitation charm, which he finds childish. McGonagall tartly replies that if he wants to find out more, he must sign up for Hogwarts.<br /><br />Harry rhapsodizes some more about ancient Greek philosophers who knew nothing, but started questioning things (oh, the irony), and fancies himself some <span style="font-style: italic;">"rationalist"</span> Saint George, ready to <span style="font-style: italic;">"face the dragon Unknown and slay it."</span> I kid you not, that's what he says. This drives him to finally steeling himself and asking how to get to Hogwarts.<br /><br />McGonagall laughs at his abrupt change of demeanor, but Dawkins intervenes. He questions if Harry should really be attending a boarding school, magic notwithstanding, given his <span style="font-style: italic;">"medical condition."</span><br /><br />This is of course him having a 26 hour sleep cycle, but I prefer to call it Plot's Disease, since it is only there to move the plot along, as we'll see later.<br /><br />Harry explains to McG that this is the reason why he's not attending a normal school, but his mother interjects, saying that's only one of the reasons.<br /><br />McGonagall basically tells them she'll get back to them on the sleep issue, before inquiring about those other reasons.<br /><br />Harry then delivers a lecture about how he objects to compulsory education and public schooling. I would harp on this, but I really agree with it, even if not with the sanctimonious way it is presented. The one size fits all public education system is really a huge disaster that fails children who for some reason don't conform to the norm and rewards mediocrity. For a primer on this, check out David Friedman's essay, <a href="http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Public%20Schools/Public_Schools1.html">The Weak Case for Public Schooling</a>. This is just my opinion, of course, and I really doubt a lot of people who aren't already libertarians/economic conservatives will agree with me, or change their minds after reading that essay. The only reason I'm mentioning this is to explain why I'm not harping more on the substance of this. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but let's try to keep political discussions out of the comments, please.<br /><br />That said, given that Harry's father teaches at Oxford, which is a state university, I don't see why he should be so merry when he notes that that explains why Harry <span style="font-style: italic;">bit</span> his third grade teacher, for not knowing what a logarithm was. Now leaving aside the sheer implausibility of this - I learned about logarithms in high school, there is no reason a school teacher, even primary school, would not know about them. The blasé way everybody - at least Harry's family - acts about this, suggests a rather disturbing attitude towards people who happen to know less. Sure, they pay lip service to the idea that it was wrong - well, actually, all they really say was that it was immature, not even wrong - to do it, but they don't seem very concerned about these random acts of violence.<br /><br />After they tease him a bit, Harry turns to McG and commiserates with her, which is so hilarious it makes Petunia run out the door into the front porch, screaming with laughter[!]. This is really beyond belief, and I have to wonder if Yudkowsky is ever around real people; if he is, and they behave this way, well, let's just say the genesis of this story becomes a lot more understandable.<br /><br />McGonnagal apparently also has trouble controlling her mirth, but manages to let out that he won't be doing any biting in Hogwarts, if knows what's good for him.<br /><br />Harry agrees, but reserves the right to bite anyone who doesn't bite him first, after which Dawkins also runs out of the room, laughing like a maniac! I have to wonder, do they think something will happen to them if they laugh inside the house? In front of a witch? What? Why are they behaving like this? Does Yudkowsky really think this is normal human behavior? EXPLAIN FIC! EXPLAIN!<br /><br />Anyway, McG tells Harry that she will delay taking him to buy his school supplies until a couple of days before the departure to Hogwarts. He protests, but she just tells him she basically thinks he's too curious and questioning to be let alone with his magic textbooks and a wand for two months. Even his defects are qualities. What do you usually call a character like this?<br /><br />Apparently, his parents have returned (it <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span><br />mentioned Dawkins had only left the room briefly, but nothing was said about Petunia), and they nod in agreement. Harry protests in what I guess is supposed to be an endearing manner, and with this our chapter comes to an end.<br /><br />This one is almost perfect microcosm of what is wrong with this fic. We have characters acting sanctimonious and browbeating the reader with their superior wisdom, attempts at brainwashing the reader with propaganda disguised as neutral exposition, characters acting in ways no sane human being would act, and "humor" that is not funny at all. The little good bit about setting conditions prior to experiments really is too little to be able to redeem it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rating: BAD</span>Mordachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100002043018736724noreply@blogger.com79tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412459596237514145.post-68389776907222644822010-06-04T10:18:00.000-07:002010-06-06T13:57:36.361-07:00One More Brick in the WallI briefly considered doing a 'Who is Eliezer Yudkowsky?' feature prior to starting the actual reviews, but I decided against it. I fear that might degenerate into personal viciousness, and I am trying to avoid that. I'm trying to do a critique on the merits here, not on the personal virtues or lack thereof of the author.<br /><br />All this having been said, we can begin.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Chapter 1: A Day of Very Low Probability</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br />Even before the story proper starts, we are treated to some short notes on 'Why Eliezer Yudlowski is better than you', or the author notes, as some may call it.<br /><br />We start with an <span style="font-style: italic;">"unnecessary disclaimer"</span>, which apparently isn't so unnecessary that it can't be used to tell us that <span style="font-style: italic;">"no one owns the methods of rationality"</span>. At first I thought this was just a plug to open source software, but then I noticed that <span style="font-style: italic;">"methods of rationality"</span> was not capitalized at all, and figured he might have been referring to the so called <span style="font-style: italic;">"methods of rationality"</span> themselves, ie, what he thinks is proper reasoning.<br /><br />Either way, this was indeed completely unnecessary. Yes, we know how evil software companies are and how geek freedom fighters oppose their tyranny through open source software. No, we do not need to hear about it in a Harry Potter fanfiction.<br /><br />If he means the fact that no one knows the methods, I am 99.9% sure that no one thought Mr. Yudlowski actually owned these. Under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine-or-transformation_test">machine-or-transformation test</a>, he wouldn't even be able to patent them! I'm sure he likes to think people might thing that, though.<br /><br />He then proceeds to inform us that the fic is widely considered to have hit its stride by chapter 5, which is fair as far as it goes. In fact, when I read this for the first time my eyes pretty much glanced over almost everything in these first chapters, so I'm really reading them with proper attention for the first time. However, that immediately segues into an announcement that all the science presented is real science.<br /><br />This may even be true. I'm an Economics major, and so I've got very little natural sciences under my belt to be able to tell. However, the real warning, which you will not see Mr. Yudlowski give, is that there is actually very little science in this story. What we have a lot of is philosophy masquerading as science to gain instant credibility among Mr. Yudlowski's primary associates, who think stamping the label of science on something gives it instant credibility.<br /><br />We are then treated to an announcement so bizarre that should really be reproduced here in full, lest its full force be lost.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"See profile (click on where it says "Less Wrong" above) for: Fan art, TV Tropes page, how to learn everything the main character knows, and trigger warnings page (warnings about possible traumatic associations for some readers)."</span><br /><br />Where to start...<br /><br />i) I'm pretty sure people who know what TV Tropes is can just type the story title into the search engine, and the people who don't will not be much motivated to do so by reading the bare mention of it;<br /><br />ii) How to learn <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> the main character <span style="font-style: italic;">knows</span>? What this really means is how to absorb Yudlowski's worldview of course. This seems mostly superfluous, because most people who will see the need to 'learn' this probably already agree with it anyway, and they'll probably know where to find it;<br /><br />iii) I'd mock the trigger warnings thing (and I do think they could go in the start of each chapter), but considering at least one thing that happens later, they're needed, so I'll refrain from mocking.<br /><br />After these delightful introit, the story proper starts.<br /><br />Or at least, so it seems at first glance. In reality, what we're treated to resembles the opening scene from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_of_Yucca_Flats">The Beast of Yucca Flats</a>.<br /><br />Apparently, blood is spilling from someone (whom we don't see), and someone (it's not clear whether it's the same person or not) screams something. Now this brief scene, rendered all in italics for some reason, like the scene from <span style="font-style: italic;">The Beast of Yucca Flats</span> I mentioned earlier, is remarkable in that it could have been inserted into <span style="font-style: italic;">any</span> place in the story and it would have appeared to be just as germane as it does here, which is, not at all. At least in Beast, the scene was there so that the audience could get a glimpse of a woman's breast. Sadly, there is no such consideration for the reader in Methods.<br /><br />We then jump to what appears to be an office. This office appears to be thoroughly populated with books of various types. As later events make clear, most of these are science books of one sort or another. There is, however, an exception, as <span style="font-style: italic;">"[o]ther shelves have two layers of paperback science fiction."</span> Because, of course, this is the only form of literature that might not infect you with humanities cooties.<br /><br />But then, wha-oosh. It turns out this is not, actually, an office, but a living room. Oh, I wonder who are the zany occupants of this house. They <span style="font-style: italic;">must</span> really <span style="font-style: italic;">love</span> knowledge to clutter every square inch of their house with books!<br /><br />It turns out the owner-occupants of the house are <span style="font-style: italic;">"the eminent Professor Michael Verres-Evans, and his wife, Mrs. Petunia Evans-Verres, and their adopted son, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres."</span><br /><br />Now this stretches credibility right here. Are we supposed to believe that the Petunia we know from the Harry Potter books managed to sustain a marriage with a university professor we'll later learn is quite eccentric, despite her aversion of the 'abnormal'? And are we supposed to believe such a personality-less woman managed to attract someone who would presumably be used to sophistication and other quirky personalities?<br /><br />I suppose maybe he tires from such things and wants at least something to be normal, and an attempt at explaining Petunia's heel face turn will be offered down the road, but I do not think it really works, which is why I'm noting it here.<br /><br />The august professor apparently not only took his wife's last name, but appended it <span style="font-style: italic;">after</span> his own. How enlightened and progressive! Let's not mince words. Professor Michael, and later Harry, are in this story to act as mouthpieces for the author. That's right guys. Yudkowsky, like Randal Munroe, is a White Knight. Thank God women have such thoughtful men around, showing how considerate they are on the internet!<br /><br />Also, Harry Potter-Evans-Verres? I hope he never has any grandchildren, because by then they'll probably be down to sextuple-barreled names by that time.<br /><br />So, apparently, they just received Harry's Hogwarts letter. It's addressed to H. Potter, because the magic quill is aware of the birth of every magical children in Great Britain, but cannot divine family court registers, I guess.<br /><br />Also, about at this time the narration shifts gears into past tense, abandoning the present tense that had been briefly employed to give it a <span style="font-style: italic;">faux</span> artistic feel.<br /><br />Anyway, apparently Petunia had never told her husband about her magical sister and in-laws, so the letter came as a bit of a shock to the good professor. Despite having meeting them at a few family events - before their untimely demise, that is - it seems he had no clue James and Lily were, in fact, a wizard and witch.<br /><br />He seems to equate their wizardry with spoon-benders and the like, telling Petunia she should read <span style="font-style: italic;">"the skeptical literature"</span>.<br /><br />Petunia, however, protests that isn't the case - they really are wizards, and pretty soon breaks down and tells her husband, between tears, about how magic destroyed her relationship with her now deceased sister.<br /><br />She apparently used to be fat, if you can believe that, and no matter how much she <span style="font-style: italic;">begged</span> her sister, you see, she wouldn't use magic on her to make her thin.<br /><br />Apparently, in this universe, she forsook marriage with Vernon, with whom she was going out in high school, because he told her he wanted to name his firstborn <span style="font-style: italic;">"Dudley Dursley"</span>.<br /><br />Hey, fat people with alliterative names can be successful. Just ask <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_christie">Chris Christie</a>!<br /><br />And now we come to one of those parts I must have skipped when I was reading this for the first time. It turns out Lily <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> give in, and gave her a potion that made her lose appetite and weight, cleared up her skin and, we can infer, made her generally hotter. After recovering from the effects of the makeover potion, <span style="font-style: italic;">people started being nice to her</span>, and she couldn't hate her sister anymore. So she loves her based on her giving her a makeover. Alright then.<br /><br />The professor attempts to blame it on the placebo effect, but we can tell he's losing some of the wind in his sails. Before we go on, I have to expound on something.<br /><br />I mentioned this was one of the parts I didn't read, which explains why I was so puzzled about how the hell Petunia could snag a university prof. Now, the potion didn't alter her personality, so that aspect remains; that just makes the message more disturbing, however. Yudkowsky's sexism is shining through. Be pretty, and people will be nice to you and you'll marry someone much better than a fat drill salesman. I find it a bit hard to believe that <span style="font-style: italic;">women</span> became nicer toward her after she got <span style="font-style: italic;">prettier</span>, but there you go.<br /><br />Anyway, the professor stubbornly insists Petunia can't be right. This brings her close to tears again, as she just <span style="font-style: italic;">"can't win arguments with [him]"</span>, but he just has to trust her here.<br /><br />To be fair to Yudkowsky, it's possible this is just plain old elitism instead of sexism. It's kind of hard to tell.<br /><br />Anyway, here, Harry enters the conversation. The narrator mentions how the two bickering lovebirds had forgotten he was there. In this, they have the advantage of the reader, who simply was never told.<br /><br />Harry intervenes to inquire just how was the existence of magic proven to Petunia and Lily's parents.<br /><br />Apparently, a teacher from Hogwarts had come and performed some magic for them. To this, Harry suggests all they have to do is write back asking for a demonstration. This will settle the argument, with one of them having to admit they're wrong. Harry says this is the experimental method, <span style="font-style: italic;">"so that we don't have to resolve things just by arguing."</span> More on this later.<br /><br />Harry's intervention displeases the Professor, who acts disappointed that his son would take the notion of magic seriously, despite saying <span style="font-style: italic;">"rationality"</span> is his favorite thing.<br /><br />Harry experiences bitter sadness that his adopted father never takes him seriously, despite giving him everything he could ask for, including, when regular primary school <span style="font-style: italic;">"didn't work out"</span>, private tutors.<br /><br />We also discover Professor Verres-Evans teaches biochemistry at Oxford. Hmm, an Oxford biologist who dismissively disdains everything that doesn't fit into his narrow worldview? I'm gonna start referring to him as Professor Dawkins from now on.<br /><br />Anyway, Harry proceeds to tell Petunia what she thinks she should do in order to win her argument, and this is another one of those things that I must quote in full, because any summary I might do just doesn't do it justice.<br /><br />'<span style="font-style: italic;">"Mum," Harry said. "If you want to win this argument with Dad, look in chapter two of the first book of the Feynman Lectures on Physics. There's a quote there about how philosophers say a great deal about what science absolutely requires, and it is all wrong, because the only rule in science is that the final arbiter is observation - that you just have to look at the world and report what you see. Um... I can't think offhand of where to find something about how it's an ideal of science to settle things by experiment instead of violence or violent arguments -"</span>'<br /><br />Word of Feynman says this is right! It's moments like this when I wonder if Yudkowsky isn't just yanking our collective chains, and writing a great satire of geek pseudo-intellectualism. But then, I remember he has an active persona outside of fanfiction, and realize he's either a very dedicated troll or serious.<br /><br />For someone who can write 100k+ words extolling the scientific method, he sure is very quick to resort to appeals to authority. And it's not even a very good authority to begin with. Being a professor of physics, no matter how brilliant, does not make you an expert at everything else. Not even humanities!<br /><br />I wonder, did Dr. Feynman determine that <span style="font-style: italic;">"the final arbiter is observation"</span> through observation? I will not say anything else on this subject, but if you are interested, just start <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science">here</a>. And then point and laugh at people who are so infatuated with their own brilliance they refuse to recognize they stand on the shoulders of giants.<br /><br />Either way, Petunia proceeds to try to make her husband feel guilty, and Harry despairs. Apparently, this is a common pattern of discussions, where Dawkins will try to browbeat Petunia with his alleged intelligence, and she will try to guilt trip him in return. Sounds like a healthy marriage to me.<br /><br />Harry leaves in disgust, his <span style="font-style: italic;">"voice trembl[ing] a little."</span> His parents continue to fight while he leaves, and we're treated to Harry's internal conflict. He instinctively feels he should trust his dad. The notion that there is a whole magical world out there sounds very far fetched. Which is a very fair point.<br /><br />He goes on to say that, despite that, Dawkins is just expressing instinctual aversion to the notion of <span style="font-style: italic;">magic</span>, rather than reasoned questioning. His father <span style="font-style: italic;">"seeme[s] to know very little about rationality"</span>, despite his bluster.<br /><br />However, apparently a small part of Harry believes in magic, even if his 'rationality' tells him not to.<br /><br />So, he will try to apply 'the scientific method' to the situation. Too bad he has a sample of one, I guess.<br /><br />Still, he will follow his own advice and write to Hogwarts. He pens a letter addressed to Professor McGonagall, who is, of course, the letter's sender, explaining his name change, and his father's skepticism. He requests a visit by an Hogwarts representative to perform a demonstration to his family.<br /><br />He then stuffs the letter in an addressed envelope, and, using candlewax (!), seals it, carving his initials onto the seal. Apparently he wants to do it with <span style="font-style: italic;">"style"</span>. I have to wonder why he would have wax candles in his house. I highly doubt they're some devout Catholics there.<br /><br />Harry goes back to his parents to show them the finished letter. Might have thought to do that before you sealed the envelope there, kid.<br /><br />Anyway, Dawkins is reading a math book, to demonstrate his superior intelligence, while his mother is making his father's favorite dish for dinner. This is supposedly to prove how loving she is. Hm, I really have to find some shorthand way of pointing out all the sexist moments in this fic, otherwise I won't be able to get anything else done!<br /><br />He announces to the silence his plans to send the letter. However, he doesn't know how to send an owl to Hogwarts. Turns out Petunia doesn't either. She supposes you just have to own a magical owl.<br /><br />Apparently this sounds suspicious, as it would make the theory untestable. Wait, I thought all that was needed was observation. What's this about '<span style="font-style: italic;">theories</span>', and '<span style="font-style: italic;">testability</span>'? You speak in riddles, <span style="font-style: italic;">sahib</span>!<br /><br />So, Harry decides to go outside and shout <span style="font-style: italic;">"Letter to Hogwarts"</span>, in hopes that an owl will come down and pick it. You know, it would be funny if he just happened to wake up a random owl and he grabbed it in revenge.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">This</span> could actually have been turned into an actual good lesson on the scientific method, to highlight the problems with inductive reasoning, why we use it anyway, and the dangers of small samples. None of that would make for very effective pamphleteering though.<br /><br />Harry asks Dawkins if he'd like to come watch, but he pretends he isn't listening. Real mature there. No wonder his marriage is in the rocks. Harry goes anyway, expressing some doubts about what would happen if his 'theory' happened to be right. As he raises the envelope to the air, he realizes how embarrassing running around shouting <span style="font-style: italic;">"Letter to Hogwarts"</span> would be, but that doesn't deter him. He's <span style="font-style: italic;">"better than [Dawkins]"</span>, and will use the scientific method even if it makes him feel stupid.<br /><br />After a false start, he starts yelling in earnest. However, he's stopped by one of his neighbors, much to his embarrassment. Red with shame, he tries to get out of the situation by saying he was just <span style="font-style: italic;">"testing a silly theory."</span> However, his worries are for naught, for the considerate neighbor only asks him if his yelling means he's already received his letter from Hogwarts.<br /><br />You guessed it, the neighbor turns out to be Mrs. Figg. I would ask, if they had her watching Harry and his family, why didn't they know he didn't, in fact, own an owl, but this is consistent with canon, so I'll have to give Yudkowsky some credit here. It's Rowling's hackery, not his. This hasn't stopped him from trying to <span style="font-style: italic;">"fix"</span> countless other canon bloopers, though, so why he didn't do this one is beyond me.<br /><br />Harry wonders if this a conspiracy, and Figg is in on it too, to make him believe in magic, but another part of him just thinks she was put there to watch him. Note that, at this time, Harry hasn't been appraised of his Boy-Who-Lived status - not that we have seen, anyway. So why would he think 'they' would want to watch him is left hanging.<br /><br />Harry explains his owl-less situation, and Figg is appalled that they just sent him the standard letter. Well, if you had told them he didn't have an owl, they might have done something else, bitch.<br /><br />After she holds out her hand, Harry hands her the letter, and she leaves, promising to bring someone over <span style="font-style: italic;">"in a jiffy or two"</span>.<br /><br />God, does anyone actually speak like this?<br /><br />Harry stands there dumbfounded, but the skeptical part of him tells him he hadn't seen any <span style="font-style: italic;">"laws of the universe"</span> violated yet. A conspiracy still seems more plausible, but he tells himself that doesn't make the events any more expected.<br /><br />He laughs, thinking to himself that this is the moss improbable day of his life. With that, the chapter ends.<br /><br />I guess we're supposed to think that is some deep insight.<br /><br />Anyway, like <a href="http://mike-smith.livejournal.com/">Mike Smith</a> does in his Harry Potter reviews, I'll be rating chapters on a pass or fail basis:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rating: Bad</span><br /><br /><br />You might have noticed I didn't say anything on Harry's personality transplant. Suffice it to say, I'll be saving that for the next chapters, where it will be even more evident. Until then. *tips hat*Mordachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100002043018736724noreply@blogger.com67tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3412459596237514145.post-56595473934232443522010-06-04T03:49:00.000-07:002010-06-07T13:24:32.712-07:00The Sucks ProjectI think I should start this blog with an intro post. <br /><br />If you have reached this site, it's extremely likely you know what the title refers to. But assuming you came here through coincidence, I shall try to quickly sum up what this blog is about.<br /><br />In the vast world of Harry Potter fanfiction, you can find the fic <a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality">Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality</a> (henceforth, 'Methods'). This is written by author '<a href="http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2269863/Less_Wrong">Less Wrong</a>', aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Yudkowsky">Eliezer S. Yudkowsky</a>. <br /><br />This fic is, pretty much Yudkowsky's way of "fixing" what he considers to be the Potter-verse's original sins while at the same time providing him with a soapbox to detail his warped take on the world.<br /><br />Ordinarily, this would have gone unnoticed, but apparently Mr. Yudkowsy had a sizable online following prior to writing this <span style="font-style:italic;">tour de force</span>, and I guess some of it must have overlapped with the Potter fandom, because this fic quickly skyrocketed in popularity and number of reviews. As of now, it even possess its own <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality">TV Tropes page</a>. <br /><br />Basically, Mr. Yudkowsky's ubiquitous yes-men like to claim (quietly encouraged by the man himself) that this fic somehow transcends its medium to become some sort of higher work through which we should absorb a superior worldview and, like Plato's cave-dwellers, break free of our chains to finally see reality for what it is. Eventually, this fic found its way into <a href="http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=15594">DLP</a>, a Harry Potter fanfiction forum I inhabit. <br /><br />The reaction to this work on DLP was initially good, and even I got carried away at first. However, it soon became apparent that whatever good features Methods possessed, they were fast being eclipsed by Mr. Yudkowsky's apparent irresistible urge to use it as a vehicle to spread his worldview, story be damned. The mood of the forum turned fast. <br /><br />However, DLP was soon invaded by Mr. Yudkowsky's yes-men, who were personally outraged that someone on the internet might disagree with the glowing reviews and point out this work's unrealistic characterization, bipolar writing and stilted dialogue. We were but philistines on which Mr. Yudkowsky's brilliance was wasted. <br /><br />Does any of this sound familiar? It may remind you of another product of the same technonerd milieu, the popular webcomic <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd</a>. Unlike Mr. Yudkowsky, xkcd manages to occasionally be funny, and it actually started off kind of good; with popularity, however, Randall Munroe, its author, has sort of let it degenerate to the kind of stagnation where it manages to produce a funny comic about once every two weeks, while the others are usually just sludge that should've never left his hard drive. To fight Munroe's hordes, who insist on proving to us the brilliance of his work, a heroic effort was founded: <a href="http://xkcdsucks.blogspot.com/">xkcdsucks</a>. <br /><br />That blog attempts to deconstruct every xkcd comic, while attempting to show that makes it so appealing to Munroe's cuttlefish. It is in that blog that this one is based. You may have noticed a similarity in layout. This is conscious emulation; I'm but doing the same work on another field. I'll attempt to go through Mr. Yudkowsky's fanfiction, chapter by chapter, and try to find out just where the appeal comes from. <br /><br />So tune in, we're in for a ride.Mordachttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13100002043018736724noreply@blogger.com16