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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality #2
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and the Professor's Games
זהו סיפורו של הארי פוטר ב"יקום מקביל" שבו אביו המאמץ הוא פרופסור באוקספורד, והארי גדל על ספרי מדע, פסיכולוגיה, מדע בדיוני, ועוד. עד שהוא מקבל הזמנה להוגוורטס ומגלה מציאות של קסמים, שלא מתיישבת בכלל עם מה שהוא למד על העולם עד כה.
הארי לא מקבל את המצב בשתיקה, הוא משתמש ביכולותיו המדעיות כדי להבין לכל הרוחות איך קסמים עובדים, ובו זמנית משתמש בידע שלו בפסיכולוגיה קוגניטיבית (וביכולת המרשימה שלו להיכנס לצרות) כדי להשליט כאוס בהוגוורטס.
הארי לא מקבל את המצב בשתיקה, הוא משתמש ביכולותיו המדעיות כדי להבין לכל הרוחות איך קסמים עובדים, ובו זמנית משתמש בידע שלו בפסיכולוגיה קוגניטיבית (וביכולת המרשימה שלו להיכנס לצרות) כדי להשליט כאוס בהוגוורטס.
279 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Eliezer Yudkowsky
46 books1,715 followersFrom Wikipedia:
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky is an American artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the singularity and an advocate of friendly artificial intelligence, living in Redwood City, California.
Yudkowsky did not attend high school and is an autodidact with no formal education in artificial intelligence. He co-founded the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) in 2000 and continues to be employed as a full-time Research Fellow there.
Yudkowsky's research focuses on Artificial Intelligence theory for self-understanding, self-modification, and recursive self-improvement (seed AI); and also on artificial-intelligence architectures and decision theories for stably benevolent motivational structures (Friendly AI, and Coherent Extrapolated Volition in particular). Apart from his research work, Yudkowsky has written explanations of various philosophical topics in non-academic language, particularly on rationality, such as "An Intuitive Explanation of Bayes' Theorem".
Yudkowsky was, along with Robin Hanson, one of the principal contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. In early 2009, he helped to found Less Wrong, a "community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality". The Sequences on Less Wrong, comprising over two years of blog posts on epistemology, Artificial Intelligence, and metaethics, form the single largest bulk of Yudkowsky's writing.
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky is an American artificial intelligence researcher concerned with the singularity and an advocate of friendly artificial intelligence, living in Redwood City, California.
Yudkowsky did not attend high school and is an autodidact with no formal education in artificial intelligence. He co-founded the nonprofit Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) in 2000 and continues to be employed as a full-time Research Fellow there.
Yudkowsky's research focuses on Artificial Intelligence theory for self-understanding, self-modification, and recursive self-improvement (seed AI); and also on artificial-intelligence architectures and decision theories for stably benevolent motivational structures (Friendly AI, and Coherent Extrapolated Volition in particular). Apart from his research work, Yudkowsky has written explanations of various philosophical topics in non-academic language, particularly on rationality, such as "An Intuitive Explanation of Bayes' Theorem".
Yudkowsky was, along with Robin Hanson, one of the principal contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias sponsored by the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. In early 2009, he helped to found Less Wrong, a "community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality". The Sequences on Less Wrong, comprising over two years of blog posts on epistemology, Artificial Intelligence, and metaethics, form the single largest bulk of Yudkowsky's writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 22, 2022
If you're wondering why I'm reading Harry Potter fan fiction, please read my review of the previous book in this series.
I was pretty mixed on that first book, but found some things about it that I really enjoyed that I was hoping to carry into this one. It does sort of start out that way, but then a large portion of this story is devoted to this convoluted war games competition between Harry, Hermione, and Draco that basically wasn't enjoyable at all for me. And as I lost interest in the events if the book, it was harder to put up with how annoying most of the characters are.
I'm unsure whether I'll continue with this series or not. I'm still a strangely a bit compelled by it and it's a pretty easy and quick read (I actually listened to this via an audiobook/podcast that was made by fans and was mostly well done). I'll see what I think after a bit of time away from it.
I was pretty mixed on that first book, but found some things about it that I really enjoyed that I was hoping to carry into this one. It does sort of start out that way, but then a large portion of this story is devoted to this convoluted war games competition between Harry, Hermione, and Draco that basically wasn't enjoyable at all for me. And as I lost interest in the events if the book, it was harder to put up with how annoying most of the characters are.
I'm unsure whether I'll continue with this series or not. I'm still a strangely a bit compelled by it and it's a pretty easy and quick read (I actually listened to this via an audiobook/podcast that was made by fans and was mostly well done). I'll see what I think after a bit of time away from it.
September 14, 2020
Highly entertaining. Sometimes ridiculous, silly and cringy. I really hope the protagonist will undergo some character development later in the series. A lot of suspension of disbelief is needed to take the 11-year-old super-genius protagonist seriously. Nonetheless, I am quite intrigued.
January 11, 2018
The second book in Harry Potter-Evans-Verres and the Methods of Rationality, The Professor's Games continues Harry's adventures in his first year at Hogwarts. The professor mentioned in the title "The Professor's Games" is no other than Professor Quirrell (or, perhaps you could interpret it as Dumbledore, but I will let you figure that out). Quirrel takes on a more central role than in Rowling's The Sorceror's Stone. Certainly, in the canon, Quirrell is the main antagonist in Book 1. He's carrying Lord Voldemort on the back of his head, seeking out the sorceror's stone to attain immortality. But Quirrell barely catches your attention throughout the book; your focus is directed to the wicked and plotting Snape rather than the "poor, stuttering Professor Quirrell." Harry himself goes to the end of the book thinking it was Snape.
In this book, Professor Quirrell is a dynamic and powerful character. His classes aren't merely lessons in wand-waving or encounters with magical creatures (he openly condemns this approach). He confronts them with ideas, with strategy-- and even introduces ideas from the Muggle world as well. You don't seem totally aware what to make of Quirrell, or what his intentions are. Does his still have Lord Voldemort in the back of his head? Is he somehow being controlled by Lord Voldemort? Or is he somehow rebelling against him? Does he have intentions of his own, separate from Lord Voldemort's?
The central feature to Quirrell's class is the concept of battle magic-- his version of defense against the dark arts. He introduces armies into Hogwarts, breaking the first years up among three generals (Potter, Malfoy, and Granger). In addition to House dynamics, you now get army dynamics.
Throughout the book, Harry, Malfoy, and Granger are the new trio; Ron is a minor character who occasionally shows up. And all are entirely different than the books. Draco is a mastermind, even willing to break his hatred of mudbloods to fulfill the ends to his plots, and becoming Harry's friend to seek power. Hermione doesn't know what to make of Harry, and plays the role of rival-friend. Harry-- well, he's definitely not the Harry of the canon. You aren't sure whether he is evil. He's trying to keep his inner Dark Lord in check, but he's definitely got some worrying symptoms.
Some readers may not like the abrupt endings. Unlike the original series, each book doesn't end with closure, tied nicely with a bow. The book was written as a series of blog posts, kind of like a Charles Dickens novel I suppose. To me, it's all the more motivation to keep reading. This one lives up to the trend of the first one, and leave you hanging.
In this book, Professor Quirrell is a dynamic and powerful character. His classes aren't merely lessons in wand-waving or encounters with magical creatures (he openly condemns this approach). He confronts them with ideas, with strategy-- and even introduces ideas from the Muggle world as well. You don't seem totally aware what to make of Quirrell, or what his intentions are. Does his still have Lord Voldemort in the back of his head? Is he somehow being controlled by Lord Voldemort? Or is he somehow rebelling against him? Does he have intentions of his own, separate from Lord Voldemort's?
The central feature to Quirrell's class is the concept of battle magic-- his version of defense against the dark arts. He introduces armies into Hogwarts, breaking the first years up among three generals (Potter, Malfoy, and Granger). In addition to House dynamics, you now get army dynamics.
Throughout the book, Harry, Malfoy, and Granger are the new trio; Ron is a minor character who occasionally shows up. And all are entirely different than the books. Draco is a mastermind, even willing to break his hatred of mudbloods to fulfill the ends to his plots, and becoming Harry's friend to seek power. Hermione doesn't know what to make of Harry, and plays the role of rival-friend. Harry-- well, he's definitely not the Harry of the canon. You aren't sure whether he is evil. He's trying to keep his inner Dark Lord in check, but he's definitely got some worrying symptoms.
Some readers may not like the abrupt endings. Unlike the original series, each book doesn't end with closure, tied nicely with a bow. The book was written as a series of blog posts, kind of like a Charles Dickens novel I suppose. To me, it's all the more motivation to keep reading. This one lives up to the trend of the first one, and leave you hanging.
March 12, 2022
In this part Harry delves into race theory and Quirrell explains why authoritarianism is wonderful.
It's still written in a somewhat baffling and ''hard to believe'' way, but the story draws you in anyway with fantastic character development and ideological tension.
It's still written in a somewhat baffling and ''hard to believe'' way, but the story draws you in anyway with fantastic character development and ideological tension.
December 24, 2021
Blood for the Blood King! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
For the Black Goat with a thousand young!
For the Black Goat with a thousand young!
February 27, 2019
I think that the book had very interesting ideas, but this one couldn't really captivate me after the awesome first part.
I struggled a lot, reading this book and found myself often skimming through the passages and ignoring a lot of explanations. This obviously often had an impact on my comprehension, but I didn't even care if I missed important bits. The reason for this was that I actually stopped caring for most part about the characters. Harry has now started turning into this obnoxious, patronizing character and stopped being fun to read about. Even though I don't think the Rowling's Harry was all that brilliant, but he was likeable enough due to a bunch of redeeming qualities. This Harry, however, I don't care for. Hermione is not fun to read about either. Draco `awoke as a scientist` after a simple scientific enquiry, wtf. That part was just unbelievable. The scientific enquiry was good stuff, however, so there's that.
The central idea behind the professor's game was interesting, but there was too much info dump. It didn't really seem like you'd need the world of Harry Potter for that. You could have the world of Skyrim and show the same kind of concept. Any world, really.
The romance is bleh as well. But that's not the main point of the story, so it doesn't matter to me.
The current ongoing mystery of that randomly appearing mystery-person is the only reason I'm continuing to read. Will give the next book a chance. If that one doesn't improve things, I'll drop the series.
I struggled a lot, reading this book and found myself often skimming through the passages and ignoring a lot of explanations. This obviously often had an impact on my comprehension, but I didn't even care if I missed important bits. The reason for this was that I actually stopped caring for most part about the characters. Harry has now started turning into this obnoxious, patronizing character and stopped being fun to read about. Even though I don't think the Rowling's Harry was all that brilliant, but he was likeable enough due to a bunch of redeeming qualities. This Harry, however, I don't care for. Hermione is not fun to read about either. Draco `awoke as a scientist` after a simple scientific enquiry, wtf. That part was just unbelievable. The scientific enquiry was good stuff, however, so there's that.
The central idea behind the professor's game was interesting, but there was too much info dump. It didn't really seem like you'd need the world of Harry Potter for that. You could have the world of Skyrim and show the same kind of concept. Any world, really.
The romance is bleh as well. But that's not the main point of the story, so it doesn't matter to me.
The current ongoing mystery of that randomly appearing mystery-person is the only reason I'm continuing to read. Will give the next book a chance. If that one doesn't improve things, I'll drop the series.
April 10, 2020
It's hard to call this a "book", since it's the "second volume" of a series that was originally not published in volumes. That being said, the volumes appear to be split in very good, very natural spots.
The first half of this book is a 2.5 star work, with a lot of tedium and long chapters. The second half, covering the "Professor's Games", is a 5-star work. It's brilliant, tense, and well-written. So, together, they are a 4-star.
The unlikely trio of Harry, Draco, and Hermione works on a fundamental level, and that friendship as a parallel to the titular Professor's Game adds an interesting thematic framework for the rest of the story. While it might be hard for some readers to see how the "frenemy" relationship between all 3 of them works, I think it fits perfectly with all 3 characters. Each of them is mirroring the other, and coming to rely on each other more than they would ever admit. I miss Ron, but Draco is adding something to the mix that would never have been possible with Ron. I do hope that Draco and Hermione become friends in all of this.
The first half of this book is a 2.5 star work, with a lot of tedium and long chapters. The second half, covering the "Professor's Games", is a 5-star work. It's brilliant, tense, and well-written. So, together, they are a 4-star.
The unlikely trio of Harry, Draco, and Hermione works on a fundamental level, and that friendship as a parallel to the titular Professor's Game adds an interesting thematic framework for the rest of the story. While it might be hard for some readers to see how the "frenemy" relationship between all 3 of them works, I think it fits perfectly with all 3 characters. Each of them is mirroring the other, and coming to rely on each other more than they would ever admit. I miss Ron, but Draco is adding something to the mix that would never have been possible with Ron. I do hope that Draco and Hermione become friends in all of this.
July 2, 2018
Z odkazů na originální kánon se dostáváme k samotnému příběhu alternativního racionálního Harryho Pottera - a nutno říct, že z mého pohledu už tohle prostě nemá ten šmrnc. Síla prvního dílu této fanfikce byla stavěná na základech originálu a zároveň zlepšovala, dovysvětlovala a zpochybňovala. Tady už se ale skoro nic takového neděje a jen se dál rozehrává už započatá hra, což už není tolik zábavné...
...tedy minimálně první polovinu knihy. Protože když dojde na bitvy tří generálů, dostává kniha naprosto jiný spád. Spád, který je opravdu velmi dobře napsaný. Za mě jasné 3,5 hvězdičky a i když už jsem se třetím dílem pokračovat nechtěl, nakonec mi to zakončení nedalo...
...tedy minimálně první polovinu knihy. Protože když dojde na bitvy tří generálů, dostává kniha naprosto jiný spád. Spád, který je opravdu velmi dobře napsaný. Za mě jasné 3,5 hvězdičky a i když už jsem se třetím dílem pokračovat nechtěl, nakonec mi to zakončení nedalo...
November 30, 2021
I didn't dislike Harry Potter in this book as much as I did in the first one. This book continues Harry's study of rationality as he works with both Hermione and Draco.
The author, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote HPMOR to promote the rationality skills he advocated on the blog. He chose Harry Potter because he'd "... been reading a lot of Harry Potter fan fiction at the time." He states that his work on rationality "informs every shade of how the characters think, both those who are allegedly rational and otherwise."
The author, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote HPMOR to promote the rationality skills he advocated on the blog. He chose Harry Potter because he'd "... been reading a lot of Harry Potter fan fiction at the time." He states that his work on rationality "informs every shade of how the characters think, both those who are allegedly rational and otherwise."
October 21, 2022
Volume 2 of the very long ff. Still entertaining and an enjoyable read if you can get past Harry's supposed ability to think at that level at that age (briefly sort of explained in a later volume). It's enjoyable to see characters in a different light and having different discussions (particularly Hermione and Draco). There's a bit of an Ender's Game feel to the games in a way that I found enjoyable.
January 20, 2023
Продовження серії, яка мене чіпко схопила своїми раціональними ідеями-методами та змусила забути обіцянку самій собі не читати фентезі (хоча тут воно наукове).
Це переосмислення професора Квірела просто геніальне. Не наляканий, не ординарний, не до кінця зрозумілий, а цілковито впевнений у власних діях, багатогранний і загадковий, яким і має бути слуга Темного Лорда (чи друг майбутнього Темного Лорда 🫣).
А ці ігри (війни), тактика, стратегія, герої та зрадники і, звичайно ж, крута Герміона - то щирий захват.
І космос, і невагомість, і зірки🤍
Це переосмислення професора Квірела просто геніальне. Не наляканий, не ординарний, не до кінця зрозумілий, а цілковито впевнений у власних діях, багатогранний і загадковий, яким і має бути слуга Темного Лорда (чи друг майбутнього Темного Лорда 🫣).
А ці ігри (війни), тактика, стратегія, герої та зрадники і, звичайно ж, крута Герміона - то щирий захват.
І космос, і невагомість, і зірки🤍
November 17, 2020
Once you get past the first book, and you acclimate to the new flavor of Harry, it is quite entertaining to read and follow the story. I will admit that the new Harry is quite annoying at times, but he does have very interesting things to say which are very thought provoking. He character development is well done and is setting up for quite a good series.
November 13, 2019
Books with a driven purpose usually irk the heck out of me. Most of this, however, was a great deal of fun. And, later, still a whole pile of fun.
Kinda nifty reading this as individual books rather than one giant chonk, too.
Kinda nifty reading this as individual books rather than one giant chonk, too.
November 3, 2020
And the fun continues. For those looking for a story about people, this isn't one. This is about a rationality about a scientific approach to situations and problems made simple. A brilliant book indeed.
August 3, 2017
Really good.
January 7, 2019
Just read it already
December 24, 2019
Thoroughly entertaining.
April 10, 2020
Hands down one of the best books I've ever read
Read
September 26, 2020в целом, хорошо. немного перебор многомногоходовочек, не совсем реалистичные дети, но читать интересно.
October 29, 2020
Продолжение странных событий во вселенной Гарри Поттера
February 9, 2021
It gets weirder and weirder, but as a scientist I like it.
Read
September 9, 2022tiring. fun! tiring. fun!!!
Read
May 19, 2023No sabía que eran muchos libros y no uno eterno, bien por mi reading challenge
November 5, 2023
How can a mind work like this? Wonderful.
December 10, 2023
יותר עלילתי וקצת פחות מצחיק
אבל השליש האחרון מותח,קורע ופשוט מרתק.
אבל השליש האחרון מותח,קורע ופשוט מרתק.
March 2, 2024
What? [Positive]
January 31, 2024
someone i love very much adores this fic and convinced me to read it. what a wild ride honestly.
February 28, 2017
The concept is still good, the characters are still interesting and humour still present, but the mind games are getting more and more complex and difficult to follow, despite the vulgarisation... Which is one of the reasons I had to take a mini-break and why it took me so long to finish the last bit of this volume. I'm probably still going to read the rest - I'm really curious to see how this Harry would deal with the climax from the official saga - but much more sporadically.
January 21, 2019
It's still a book about thinking.
Maybe, The Book. Even the commentary section has enough treasure to make year's reading, and for those, who read and comprehend it (I'm rather sure, not after the first read) it would completely or at least partly change the way they look at the world around. Coz it's not a book about adventures but about how we deal with the world.
One big spoiler alert: I won't say a word about the plot, more about how the book is build, however, that in itself may be very sight-changing (it was for me, after all). Yet I don't want to place full spoiler alert as maybe this kind of understanding may save the book from certain condemnation of those, who looks for just new pov on a known world and new good old characters and interesting interactions between them (and, well, it's not the thing). But others may have intention of exporing it's wonders all by themselves.
...still here? I'm writing this review only about Book 2 btw, as I've done one for Book 1 on Russian (repeated many points here, tho) and will do for the Book 3 as soon as complete it.
So, the great exposition of Book 1 is done, and we've got some sht happening here. A lot, actually. The story of one main character with a bunch of colourful sidekicks evolves and branches into a lot of different stories told with very different POVs. These are briliantly written, not in a way of language (it's kinda evenly well done) but in a way how character's values vary, even being described in third person.
However, here lies my big BOO about the whole series, and it even has it's own article on TVtropes: Unreliable Narrator. ALL OF THEM (smtms for different reasons).
And, yes, truly it is very hard for any author to pull it off and yet Yudkowsky does it very conviniently, which makes me admire the whole thing and alienates me more at the same time.
If I was to name an antropomorphic version of the book, it'd certainly be it's Quirrell. Powerfull (that power may even look hidden for a dull gaze) but not caring, it can teach you a lot, but only if you don't trust it blindly (or in almost any way). They tell you how to recognise a lie then lie to you and have maybe the tiniest spark of interest whether you got them. And if you fail, well, that's your problem and next lesson will be harder and even that's preferrable to have no lesson at all.
So, brilliant book with an attitude of evil mentor.
Maybe, The Book. Even the commentary section has enough treasure to make year's reading, and for those, who read and comprehend it (I'm rather sure, not after the first read) it would completely or at least partly change the way they look at the world around. Coz it's not a book about adventures but about how we deal with the world.
One big spoiler alert: I won't say a word about the plot, more about how the book is build, however, that in itself may be very sight-changing (it was for me, after all). Yet I don't want to place full spoiler alert as maybe this kind of understanding may save the book from certain condemnation of those, who looks for just new pov on a known world and new good old characters and interesting interactions between them (and, well, it's not the thing). But others may have intention of exporing it's wonders all by themselves.
...still here? I'm writing this review only about Book 2 btw, as I've done one for Book 1 on Russian (repeated many points here, tho) and will do for the Book 3 as soon as complete it.
So, the great exposition of Book 1 is done, and we've got some sht happening here. A lot, actually. The story of one main character with a bunch of colourful sidekicks evolves and branches into a lot of different stories told with very different POVs. These are briliantly written, not in a way of language (it's kinda evenly well done) but in a way how character's values vary, even being described in third person.
However, here lies my big BOO about the whole series, and it even has it's own article on TVtropes: Unreliable Narrator. ALL OF THEM (smtms for different reasons).
And, yes, truly it is very hard for any author to pull it off and yet Yudkowsky does it very conviniently, which makes me admire the whole thing and alienates me more at the same time.
If I was to name an antropomorphic version of the book, it'd certainly be it's Quirrell. Powerfull (that power may even look hidden for a dull gaze) but not caring, it can teach you a lot, but only if you don't trust it blindly (or in almost any way). They tell you how to recognise a lie then lie to you and have maybe the tiniest spark of interest whether you got them. And if you fail, well, that's your problem and next lesson will be harder and even that's preferrable to have no lesson at all.
So, brilliant book with an attitude of evil mentor.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews