for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality3/3 c84 Hidden Turnip
I just realised something annoying: if Harry had told Hermione the secret of Dementors and the true Patronus Charm, she might have been able to resist Dementors, like him. Not that sending a child to a prison whose very existence is a crime against humanity is morally acceptable, but neither is putting Harry at Malfoy's mercy and at least whatever damage she endured would have been fixable.
I just realised something annoying: if Harry had told Hermione the secret of Dementors and the true Patronus Charm, she might have been able to resist Dementors, like him. Not that sending a child to a prison whose very existence is a crime against humanity is morally acceptable, but neither is putting Harry at Malfoy's mercy and at least whatever damage she endured would have been fixable.
3/3 c5 Logan
Hilarious
Hilarious
3/3 c4 Logan
McGonagall is a real one.
McGonagall is a real one.
3/3 c3 Logan
So real for enjoying DnD rulebooks. There's something entrancing about the prospect of a stat block, as opposed to its actual, very mundane existence on a list of items or creatures.
I also super like the implication of Harry's potential in magic. Unlike the source material of the Harry Potter series, we're likely receiving, in current time, an answer as to why HE might become a brilliant wizard; it's beyond his genetics; it includes the way he thinks.
Or maybe this theory will be binned in a few chapters...
Also, NO YOU-KNOW-WHO!?
So real for enjoying DnD rulebooks. There's something entrancing about the prospect of a stat block, as opposed to its actual, very mundane existence on a list of items or creatures.
I also super like the implication of Harry's potential in magic. Unlike the source material of the Harry Potter series, we're likely receiving, in current time, an answer as to why HE might become a brilliant wizard; it's beyond his genetics; it includes the way he thinks.
Or maybe this theory will be binned in a few chapters...
Also, NO YOU-KNOW-WHO!?
3/3 c2 Logan
I like the implications that are being formed at this point. Curious to see why Harry must be afflicted by such a strange sleeping condition lol
I like the implications that are being formed at this point. Curious to see why Harry must be afflicted by such a strange sleeping condition lol
3/3 c1 Logan
A good opening chapter.
Poor Petunia...
A good opening chapter.
Poor Petunia...
3/3 c77 Hidden Turnip
Dumbledore is doing it wrong. You can't reach Harry by appealing to his sense of reacting proportionately to his situation, what he should do is have him beat up by his Slytherin classmates while claiming to be teaching him a valuable life lesson.
Jokes aside, I think it's pretty obvious now that Quirrell has sinister designs when he escalates the situation after his lessons to Harry about accepting to lose.
Dumbledore is doing it wrong. You can't reach Harry by appealing to his sense of reacting proportionately to his situation, what he should do is have him beat up by his Slytherin classmates while claiming to be teaching him a valuable life lesson.
Jokes aside, I think it's pretty obvious now that Quirrell has sinister designs when he escalates the situation after his lessons to Harry about accepting to lose.
3/1 c52 Hidden Turnip
That was unusually stupid of Harry. Up until now, he was always critical of what people told him, but this time all Quirrell had to say was Voldemort broke Bellatrix and she didn't deserve to be put in Azkaban and he takes him at his word.
That was unusually stupid of Harry. Up until now, he was always critical of what people told him, but this time all Quirrell had to say was Voldemort broke Bellatrix and she didn't deserve to be put in Azkaban and he takes him at his word.
3/1 c47 Hidden Turnip
Now Harry won't rest before snakes are recognised as people all around the world
Now Harry won't rest before snakes are recognised as people all around the world
3/1 c45 Hidden Turnip
Indomitable human spirit-pilled ️️
Absolute cinema ️
Indomitable human spirit-pilled ️️
Absolute cinema ️
3/1 c42 Hidden Turnip
I wonder if telling Neville about Peter Pettigrew is really a good idea, Harry. If I tended to get scared easily and someone told me about someone with the same trouble who got murdered by a Death Eater and the narrator told me that facing his fear (only to get murdered) made him the bravest of all of us, I would be afraid and possibly a little offended
I wonder if telling Neville about Peter Pettigrew is really a good idea, Harry. If I tended to get scared easily and someone told me about someone with the same trouble who got murdered by a Death Eater and the narrator told me that facing his fear (only to get murdered) made him the bravest of all of us, I would be afraid and possibly a little offended
2/28 c6 Guest
This is really a very good writing. I am not reading just to enjoy it but I enjoyed it alot. I am reading this so that I can fix my rationality. I see science is the only way. I would like to read all of the science and books like this which uses science with real world examples to reflect upon it .
Thanks for writing this.
This is really a very good writing. I am not reading just to enjoy it but I enjoyed it alot. I am reading this so that I can fix my rationality. I see science is the only way. I would like to read all of the science and books like this which uses science with real world examples to reflect upon it .
Thanks for writing this.
2/28 c28 Hidden Turnip
I am amazed that Harry's approach to partial transmutation actually worked. Whatever transfiguration does, the input is an intent to transfigure an item, that is, some kind of mental representation of the change you are trying to cause, and the output is usually a physical change that fits the wizard's intent. And however that works, it is clear that the output is considerably more complicated than the input: the number of atoms in a table or a pig is not something our brains can imagine, not even close. In other words, the spell somehow “takes care” of the finer details for the wizard casting it, kind of like how a compiler takes source code that's understandable to a human and outputs an unintelligible sequence of bits that does its expected purpose (as long as you coded it right). So it was very arrogant of Harry (in a cute way, fitting an 11-year-old prodigy's tendency to wildly overestimate his knowledge and understanding of the world, even if he knows the scientific method) to presume the wizarding world had to be wrong about the limitations of a “language” that manipulates objects on a macroscopic scale just because he knew what individual bits did.
Of course, the comparison with a compiler ignores something important: computers and compilers are designed by humans and it's possible to know directly how they work, but the wizarding world doesn't know directly how magic works, they just live with it in the same way we live with our natural laws. Harry was certainly correct about the fact that he understood something his teachers didn't about transmutation, namely the structure of untransmuted matter, so taking that information into account to attempt partial transmutation in a way that had probably not been tried before was worth a shot, but it was far from predictable. He seemed to believe he had solid reasons to predict this result when he had no idea how transmutation worked on the scale of “tiny separate things” and the only explanation he had for why it had never succeeded before was the ad hoc and irrefutable assumption of a “conceptual limitation” (which is kind of silly given that atomism had existed in natural philosophy for millenia).
I fear that his achievement is going to get to his head.
I am amazed that Harry's approach to partial transmutation actually worked. Whatever transfiguration does, the input is an intent to transfigure an item, that is, some kind of mental representation of the change you are trying to cause, and the output is usually a physical change that fits the wizard's intent. And however that works, it is clear that the output is considerably more complicated than the input: the number of atoms in a table or a pig is not something our brains can imagine, not even close. In other words, the spell somehow “takes care” of the finer details for the wizard casting it, kind of like how a compiler takes source code that's understandable to a human and outputs an unintelligible sequence of bits that does its expected purpose (as long as you coded it right). So it was very arrogant of Harry (in a cute way, fitting an 11-year-old prodigy's tendency to wildly overestimate his knowledge and understanding of the world, even if he knows the scientific method) to presume the wizarding world had to be wrong about the limitations of a “language” that manipulates objects on a macroscopic scale just because he knew what individual bits did.
Of course, the comparison with a compiler ignores something important: computers and compilers are designed by humans and it's possible to know directly how they work, but the wizarding world doesn't know directly how magic works, they just live with it in the same way we live with our natural laws. Harry was certainly correct about the fact that he understood something his teachers didn't about transmutation, namely the structure of untransmuted matter, so taking that information into account to attempt partial transmutation in a way that had probably not been tried before was worth a shot, but it was far from predictable. He seemed to believe he had solid reasons to predict this result when he had no idea how transmutation worked on the scale of “tiny separate things” and the only explanation he had for why it had never succeeded before was the ad hoc and irrefutable assumption of a “conceptual limitation” (which is kind of silly given that atomism had existed in natural philosophy for millenia).
I fear that his achievement is going to get to his head.
2/27 c14 Hidden Turnip
Follow-up on my previous comment:
Now that I think of it, there is one option I didn't consider: if Comed-Tea does subtle retroactive mind-control to make people drink it only when something very funny is about to happen, then maybe instead of blatantly mind-controlling you at the specific timings you committed to drinking it, it could be more subtle and stop anyone from even coming up with experimental protocols to test the retroactive mind-control hypothesis in the first place.
Such a property would have very sinister implications if applied to any stakes higher than making someone spit out their drink (I will not judge whether this is worse than the possibility to alter reality to one's whims with a drink for children), but as far as only the scientific process is concerned, that would make Harry's hypothesis about Comed-Tea completely untestable, though it would be correct.
Follow-up on my previous comment:
Now that I think of it, there is one option I didn't consider: if Comed-Tea does subtle retroactive mind-control to make people drink it only when something very funny is about to happen, then maybe instead of blatantly mind-controlling you at the specific timings you committed to drinking it, it could be more subtle and stop anyone from even coming up with experimental protocols to test the retroactive mind-control hypothesis in the first place.
Such a property would have very sinister implications if applied to any stakes higher than making someone spit out their drink (I will not judge whether this is worse than the possibility to alter reality to one's whims with a drink for children), but as far as only the scientific process is concerned, that would make Harry's hypothesis about Comed-Tea completely untestable, though it would be correct.
2/27 c14 Hidden Turnip
I am probably not the first one to come up with this, but Harry's hypothesis about the way Comed-Tea works seems relatively easy to test: commit to drink it at precise timings (for example, at the turn of each hour of a day, down to the second) and see what happens. If, as Harry hypothesised, the comedy causes the urge to drink it, then if the action of drinking is caused by his commitment to his timing, I can see two things happening: either nothing at all (if the rule is simply “if comedy, then drink”, but the tea lets other sufficient motivations cause one to drink it), or he would likely fail to get the timing right (which, since this seems like a relatively easy task, would suggest that the tea actively prevents one from drinking it if no comedy is about to happen).
If he manages to drink the tea and something comedic enough to make him spit it out happens every time, then given how unlikely it would be for spit-take-worthy coincidences to happen at precisely the turn of an hour, every hour of a day, the most reasonable explanation would be that it does manipulate probability somehow.
I am probably not the first one to come up with this, but Harry's hypothesis about the way Comed-Tea works seems relatively easy to test: commit to drink it at precise timings (for example, at the turn of each hour of a day, down to the second) and see what happens. If, as Harry hypothesised, the comedy causes the urge to drink it, then if the action of drinking is caused by his commitment to his timing, I can see two things happening: either nothing at all (if the rule is simply “if comedy, then drink”, but the tea lets other sufficient motivations cause one to drink it), or he would likely fail to get the timing right (which, since this seems like a relatively easy task, would suggest that the tea actively prevents one from drinking it if no comedy is about to happen).
If he manages to drink the tea and something comedic enough to make him spit it out happens every time, then given how unlikely it would be for spit-take-worthy coincidences to happen at precisely the turn of an hour, every hour of a day, the most reasonable explanation would be that it does manipulate probability somehow.