On September 22nd, an artist posted an image of a female version of Draco Malfoy¹. It started a huge trend that is continuing to grow. Thousands of people have created texts, images and videos depicting her and her relationship to Harry, as well as other adjacent, often hilariously absurd stuff, such as Dumbledore and Malfoy's father pummeling Dobby the house elf, Luna Lovegood dabbling in phrenology, or Ron fighting Snape to keep him from interrupting Harry and Malfoy's special moment.
The last time something took over the timeline so profoundly and totally was Ghiblification². That simple fact made me think harder about what might be common between these two trends.
Changing one single thing about a richly constructed world can lead to an avalanche of interesting implications. Here the vivid, intricate characterizations and story elements present in J. K. Rowling's work become a living, reactive system, aided by some interpretation and imagination on the part of thousands of co-creators, and we get an entirely new reality based on one single switched element. In Ghiblification, the changed element was the rendition itself, with equally mesmerizing results.
So these two events now lead me to a generalization: you can enter an entirely new reality by changing a sufficiently important existing element in a sufficiently refined and robust way. Changing Malfoy to a woman has been lauded by many as a very smart storytelling decision that leads to poignant emotional counterpoints, arcs, contrasts, reversals, reconciliation.
Changes that lead to such outsized results seem to be rare.
I think we should actively search and prospect for apt reality flips that open entirely new worlds based on existing sets of elements and perspectives shifted into entirely new configurations by the change. It fascinates us to see the familiar through an entirely new prism that changes everything about it. It can be hugely useful, not just entertaining. A technological innovation could lead to a wholly different world for everyone. On a personal level, a change of perspective or practices, or even just wardrobe, could unlock whole new horizons for you.
We should systematize a hunt for efficient ARF (haha)discovery methods by cross-comparing things like "Malfoid," Ghiblification, smartphones, meditation and the other rare, proven examples of this phenomenon, distilling commonalities and then setting out to invent or detect other flips for us to switch.
On September 22nd, an artist posted an image of a female version of Draco Malfoy¹. It started a huge trend that is continuing to grow. Thousands of people have created texts, images and videos depicting her and her relationship to Harry, as well as other adjacent, often hilariously absurd stuff, such as Dumbledore and Malfoy's father pummeling Dobby the house elf, Luna Lovegood dabbling in phrenology, or Ron fighting Snape to keep him from interrupting Harry and Malfoy's special moment.
The last time something took over the timeline so profoundly and totally was Ghiblification². That simple fact made me think harder about what might be common between these two trends.
Changing one single thing about a richly constructed world can lead to an avalanche of interesting implications. Here the vivid, intricate characterizations and story elements present in J. K. Rowling's work become a living, reactive system, aided by some interpretation and imagination on the part of thousands of co-creators, and we get an entirely new reality based on one single switched element. In Ghiblification, the changed element was the rendition itself, with equally mesmerizing results.
So these two events now lead me to a generalization: you can enter an entirely new reality by changing a sufficiently important existing element in a sufficiently refined and robust way. Changing Malfoy to a woman has been lauded by many as a very smart storytelling decision that leads to poignant emotional counterpoints, arcs, contrasts, reversals, reconciliation.
Changes that lead to such outsized results seem to be rare.
I think we should actively search and prospect for apt reality flips that open entirely new worlds based on existing sets of elements and perspectives shifted into entirely new configurations by the change. It fascinates us to see the familiar through an entirely new prism that changes everything about it. It can be hugely useful, not just entertaining. A technological innovation could lead to a wholly different world for everyone. On a personal level, a change of perspective or practices, or even just wardrobe, could unlock whole new horizons for you.
We should systematize a hunt for efficient ARF (haha) discovery methods by cross-comparing things like "Malfoid," Ghiblification, smartphones, meditation and the other rare, proven examples of this phenomenon, distilling commonalities and then setting out to invent or detect other flips for us to switch.
[1] The post that kicked off the phenomenon: https://x.com/redteneri/status/2102398387194626330
[2] My preceding essay on Ghiblification: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JPqebkwTFaKF2BpbK/the-ghibli-event-our-first-glimpse-of-reality-transfer