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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

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1–10 of 31 posts

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

#7
post #2

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

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 :) )

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

#8
post #4

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.

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.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

#9
post #8
post #4

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.

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.

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.

Re: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky

#10
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.
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