

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky - billswift
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

======
Vivtek
I _almost_ posted this last night. (I was too busy reading it, though.)

I get the same feeling of open-mouthed joy from it that I get from any other
Miles Vorkosigan story. It's just that this is the first Vorkosigan story I've
ever read that had that Vorkosigan flair while not being written by Bujold.
And, OK, not being about Miles Vorkosigan. Or so he says.

This is where I really started laughing: "Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling is
watching you from where she waits, eternally in the void between worlds." A
few chapters later, I was in love; it's going to be a three-way wedding; me,
the Time-Turner, and Eliezer Yudkowsky.

~~~
Prolorn
I found it myself just yesterday through a completely unrelated channel.
Didn't catch the author at first glance! Seeing Yudkowsky linked to FF.net on
HN made me do a double-take. I wonder how long it would have taken me to catch
on if I hadn't stopped to finish work. Guess I must go back and finish it now!

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nixme
If anyone's looking for a EPUB version for their iPad/ebook reader, here you
go:
[http://dl.dropbox.com/u/133571/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_...](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/133571/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality.epub)

Converted via <http://fanfictionloader.appspot.com/>

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cabalamat
You bastard Eliezer! You've just wasted 4 hours of my life, just at the time
when I have a rather busy schedule! No doubt this is all part of your evil
plan to become a rich science fiction author, then use your money to build a
self-improving AI that will conquer^H optimise the universe.

~~~
goodside
Jokes aside, writing this fanfic is certainly a curious use of time for
someone charged with the task of saving the world from an apocalypse.

~~~
AngryParsley
From the author's notes:

 _I started writing this story in part because I'd bogged down on a book I was
working on (now debogged), and that means my top priority was to have fun
writing again._

It might have helped in other ways, too. Release of this fanfic correlates
with increased traffic on LW: <http://siteanalytics.compete.com/lesswrong.com>

Apparently if you want to get more people to visit your site, write Harry
Potter fanfic.

~~~
gjm11
_Apparently if you want to get more people to visit your site, write Harry
Potter fanfic._

... If you happen to be as good at it as Eliezer Yudkowsky is. Which you
probably aren't.

~~~
gjm11
If whoever downvoted this would like to explain why, I'd be interested.

(General consensus seems to be that HPATMOR is in fact an _exceptionally good_
instance of Harry Potter fan-fiction. It therefore seems likely that most
people are not as good at writing Harry Potter fan-fiction as Eliezer is.
Ergo, his success in getting more visitors to his site by writing Harry Potter
fan-fiction is not likely representative of what other people would achieve.)

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SamReidHughes
This is _wonderful_. Every chapter, I find myself exclaiming, _Oh my gosh, Oh
my gosh, Oh my gosh,_ basking in how awesome this is. Chapter 17 alone would
have made the first 16 chapters worth it, if they were not all already worth
it.

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MikeCapone
For more (mostly non-fiction) by Eliezer, check out:

<http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences>

~~~
AngryParsley
For more fiction by Eliezer, you probably want
<http://yudkowsky.net/other/fiction>

For what many think is his most evocative writing, see
<http://yudkowsky.net/other/yehuda>

~~~
ugh
If you liked this you should definitely also read Three Worlds Collide [1].
Heck, if you like science fiction even only a bit you should check it out.
It’s a great story!

[1] <http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/>

– edit: I just submitted Three Worlds Collide because apparently nobody has
done so yet: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1387771>

------
merraksh
_You turned into a cat! A SMALL cat! You violated Conservation of Energy!_
(Chapter 2)

Energy? I'd rather call it a violation of conservation of mass.

~~~
goodside
Mass isn't conserved. The sun operates by destroying matter, as do atom bombs.
Energy, which matter is a form of, is conserved. The violation isn't the
turning into a cat, it's the lack of a subsequent mushroom cloud.

~~~
rbanffy
Well... To be fair, the added matter could be shifted into a higher dimension
and detached from the cat. You would then see a small cat with the expected
mass of a small cat.

All you need is sufficiently advanced technology.

~~~
loup-vaillant
Plus, if you discharge the mass, you will have to somehow reclaim it when
turning back into an human. Destroying the Earth wasn't a good idea to beging
with, but freezing it doesn't sound better.

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ErrantX
The intro is right; it really kicks in from Ch5 onwards.

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nostrademons
I never thought I'd see a fanfiction.net link on Hacker News. ;-)

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swombat
This is bloody amazing. I'm speechless. Awesome. Go Eliezer go.

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zephjc
hah! this seems like a good read so far and promises to be great based on the
chapter list.

~~~
GFischer
It is pretty good so far :) (not that I'm a picky reader)...

It reminds me of an alternate Harry Potter that was available around the
Internet about the time book 5 was about to be released... it was pretty cool
(I think I actually liked it more than the original). I realized that it was
not the original a bit into it, but I still kept on reading. I'll look it up
(don't have it here), but I'm not sure who was the author (of if it could be
discovered).

I guess what I can take from it is that I don't demand too much quality from
my fanfiction :P (and I'm amazed at what can fans do :) )

