I think the case for why dath ilan is relevant to the real world basically rests on two pieces of context which most people don’t have:
Yudkowsky mostly writes rationalfic, so dath ilan is his actual expectations of what would happen if he were the median person, not just some worldbuilding meant to support a compelling narrative.
Yudkowsky tries pretty hard to convey useful thoughts about the world through his fiction. HPMOR was intended as a complement to the Sequences. Glowfic is an even weirder format, but I’ve heard Yudkowsky say that he can’t write anything else in large volume anymore, and glowfic is an inferior substitute still meant to edify. Overall, I’d guess that these quotes are roughly 30% random irrelevant worldbuilding, and 70% carefully written vignette to convey what good coordination is actually capable of.
Thanks, I made minor edits to clarify the post.
I think the case for why dath ilan is relevant to the real world basically rests on two pieces of context which most people don’t have:
Yudkowsky mostly writes rationalfic, so dath ilan is his actual expectations of what would happen if he were the median person, not just some worldbuilding meant to support a compelling narrative.
Yudkowsky tries pretty hard to convey useful thoughts about the world through his fiction. HPMOR was intended as a complement to the Sequences. Glowfic is an even weirder format, but I’ve heard Yudkowsky say that he can’t write anything else in large volume anymore, and glowfic is an inferior substitute still meant to edify. Overall, I’d guess that these quotes are roughly 30% random irrelevant worldbuilding, and 70% carefully written vignette to convey what good coordination is actually capable of.