Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

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Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 · rating details · 1,056 ratings · 138 reviews

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is an IN PROGRESS work of alternate-universe Harry Potter fan-fiction wherein Petunia Evans has married an Oxford biochemistry professor and young genius Harry grows up fascinated by science and science fiction. When he finds out that he is a wizard, he tries to apply scientific principles to his study of magic, with sometimes su...more

ebook, 1391 pages

Published (first published 2010)

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Jul 03, 2012 Elius rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, 2012-books, favourites, psychology, humor, young-adult

Imagine Harry Potter being replaced with a Harry Potter with combined talents of Ender Wiggins, Artemis Fowl and Yagami Light and put him in world much darker than Rowling envisioned. Yep, that's what this book was. No Ron or Hagrid to distract you, this is a Machiavellian Harry who manipulates people to his own ends, with powers the Dark Lord knows not, and the ambition for world domination (or, as he would call it, world optimization)

It is a HUGE book and still ongoing. Took me three days stra...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Eddie rated it 4 of 5 stars

AI researcher and decision theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky probably woke up one day and asked himself a single question: what would have happened in Harry Potter’s first year in Hogwarts, had he not been such an insufferable idiot?

You might not have considered him to be an idiot in the first place, but as the book progresses and the new Harry makes his way around Hogwarts, facing the same problems and situations, it becomes impossible to ignore the oh so logical and natural way he handles them this...more AI researcher and decision theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky probably woke up one day and asked himself a single question: what would have happened in Harry Potter’s first year in Hogwarts, had he not been such an insufferable idiot?

You might not have considered him to be an idiot in the first place, but as the book progresses and the new Harry makes his way around Hogwarts, facing the same problems and situations, it becomes impossible to ignore the oh so logical and natural way he handles them this time. It really makes one wonder what was going through his head in the original version and feels like a direct critique of Rowling. It made me wonder how I managed to ever take the original seriously (might have something to do with me being 8 at the time).

In Eliezer’s version of the story, Harry is a child prodigy; Highly intelligent and educated well beyond his years in the sciences and the methods of rationality, he is well equipped to handle anything the magical world can throw at him and then some. But this Harry also has a dark side and we get to know him better as he struggles to find balance in himself.

The differences in this parallel universe don’t end with Harry, though. His adopting parents, Petunia and Prof. Michael Verres-Evans, are happily married and treat him as they would their own flesh and blood. Ron and Hermione remain mostly the same, although genius Harry obviously prefers to interact with the hard working book-worm and quickly decides that a boring, average ginger is simply not worth his precious time (speaking of time... no, I won’t ruin the surprise). A cunning and manipulative Draco Malfoy and a powerful yet cynical Prof. Quirrell take on larger roles, in quite unexpected ways. We also see much more of Dumbledore (who’s actually read The Lord of the Rings, seeing as every muggle student ever to come to Hogwarts thought that gifting him a copy was an original idea).

It seems important to note that magic is also treated a little bit differently, especially by a scientific Harry, who sets out to test and understand it, thus restoring order to the seemingly shattered laws of physics. Naturally, things don’t go according to plan and at times he is forced to improvise.

The book started out pretty well, with some laugh out loud scenes as Harry finds out about magic for the first time (see quote below). As I read the first few chapters I kept waiting for the level to drop, for the premise to exhaust itself, for my enthusiasm to subside, but 300 pages in and hungrily reading on, It was clear that I’ve stumbled upon something great and that the story is safe in the deft hands of Eliezer Yudkowsky.

Quote ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You turned into a cat! A SMALL cat! You violated Conservation of Energy! That's not just an arbitrary rule, it's implied by the form of the quantum Hamiltonian! Rejecting it destroys unitarity and then you get FTL signaling! And cats are COMPLICATED! A human mind can't just visualize a whole cat's anatomy and, and all the cat biochemistry, and what about the neurology? How can you go on thinking using a cat-sized brain?”
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The book is funny, at times hilarious. The premise is well executed as Eliezer draws from his vast experience as a rationalist and lets us take a look at genius minds at work; we all know how hard that is to pull off. Methods of Rationality really hits its stride around chapter 5 and according to the author if you haven’t taken to it by chapter 10, then that’s a good time to call it quits (and rethink your interests).

From the get-go, different decisions create chains of cause and effect that send the book in pretty different directions (like Harry finding out almost immediately that he’s prophesied to battle against the dark lord). Other scenes repeat almost word for word, like the first potions lesson with Snape (only this time, Harry refuses to play the victim and stands up to him, in a rather spectacular fashion).

As the story progressed, I found myself engrossed in the plot, invested in the characters and generally unable to put the book down. It is not flawless and at times Eliezer’s inexperience as a novel writer shows, but overall this is as good as it gets. Come for the premise, stay for the story and along the way let the message of rationality rub off and enlighten you. I’ve rarely been as inspired to study, as in love with science or as driven to succeed as when I’ve read this book. (less)

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Oct 02, 2011 J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

First novel-length fanfiction I've read all the way through to the end. Linked via http://www.metafilter.com/105731/Reme... --comments on the fic start about halfway down the page.

Our what-if here is: what if Aunt Petunia had begged Lily to magic her a better life (via, primarily, beauty), and Lily had done so? Petunia marries a brilliant professor instead of Vernon Dursley, and Harry grows up loved and educated instead of abused.

So: Harry is a Ravenclaw, and a prodigy, and intends to approach...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Jack rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

A fun take on the Potterverse from someone obsessed with all the ways that humans fail to behave in ways that make sense - for a rather strict meaning of "make sense". Leaving aside the usual fights over the legitimacy of fanfic in general, the big question is how much Yudkowsky's Potter is an idealized author stand-in (a "Mary Sue", or "Marty Stu" in the parlance). My answer: Quite a lot, but not fatally. On the minus side, this Harry Potter talks and thinks quite a lot like someone in his late...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Besha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I read this simultaneously with Bruce Sterling's Distraction, and they’re a bit intertwined for me. They both feature male protagonists who are special by birth—Oscar Valparaiso is a clone with extrahuman abilities, Harry Potter is The Boy Who Lived And Was Then Raised To Be Rational. They both involve a lot of political maneuvering, interpersonal manipulation, and being terribly clever. They’re both quite funny.

This is a web serial, reimagining JK Rowling with a single point of divergence: Petu...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: enlightenment-2-0, fiction

HPMOR (as it's known to fans) is the perfect book for nerds: funny, clever, rife with allusions to other great nerdly works, and yet seriously capable of teaching something real. In this case, the real value-add are principles of reasoning that can lead to better decisions by genuinely emotional, non-Spockian humans in real life.

Shockingly, this story also has a plot. It runs roughly parallel with the HP canon, but the relationships are different and the entire arc of the Potter stories seems d...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Xi Xinghe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recently I've been wondering just what exactly I wanted from literary fiction. Surely I did not expect life-changing epiphanies, at least not from every single book. But neither did I want my books be merely means to cheap escapism, which I had, perhaps mistakenly, long associated with genre fiction. Somehow I seem to be asking both too much and not enough, and therein lies the reason for my inability to rekindle the kind of pure unadulterated love I used to have for reading. No longer can I sim...more Recently I've been wondering just what exactly I wanted from literary fiction. Surely I did not expect life-changing epiphanies, at least not from every single book. But neither did I want my books be merely means to cheap escapism, which I had, perhaps mistakenly, long associated with genre fiction. Somehow I seem to be asking both too much and not enough, and therein lies the reason for my inability to rekindle the kind of pure unadulterated love I used to have for reading. No longer can I simply pick up a book with a fancy cover and devour it like a fat kid with a Macdonald's burger. Now my books have to be interesting but not too fantastical, philosophical but not overly pretentious, and preferably famous but hopefully unfamilar to people my age. Structures should to be organic, voices have to be genuine and reviews must be glowing. Years of reliance on the "award-winning" shelf at the library have turned me into a spoiled and picky book reader. Perhaps not yet a book snob, but definitely approaching that territory. A book vegan, perhaps.

Yet sometimes despite my pickiness, I would find a book that by all accounts I should hate, but cannot help but love anyway, like a cheeseburger you bought because you were in a rush, but turned out to be your best meal of the day. Below is ostensibly a review for such a book, but really is a love letter to my favourite "book" at the moment.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is the first piece of fan-fiction I have ever read, and never in my life did I expect myself to fall head over heels in love with a wall of text posted on a website that is also home to thousands of pages of Harry/Draco erotica. To those of us that grew up with Rowling's books, the Harry Potter series was our heathen bible, our first novel, and the source of some of our fondest childhood memories. That someone by the name of "lesswrong" dared to "improve"on a book so loved and sacred in the eyes of its fans is nothing short of blasphemy. A fan-fiction that dared to attempt to surpass its original! It seemed like arrogance of the highest level, and I felt like God looking down upon the Tower of Babel.

Yet from the very first chapter, HPMOR felt like no ordinary tribute or parody. It was a truely original reimagining of a world that was already exceedingly familar to any casual consumer of popular culture, let alone a fan. At first, the differences between Eliezer Yudkowsky's universe and Rowling's may seem superficial. The basis of the story can be summed up by the HPMOR website's tagline, "Petunia married a professor, and Harry grew up reading science and science-fiction." Imagine, for a moment, that Harry was never an orphan, and grew up in a loving family into a well-adjusted, confident, if not a little eccentric 11-year-old. Imagine again, that Harry actually knew SCIENCE before encoutering magic. The result is a surprisingly different story from the original.

Without the insecurities and emotional baggage that accompanied the original protagonist, there is greater room in the story to explore the world around Harry, rather than to dwell on the inner turmoil of Harry himself. At the same time, the new, precocious Harry can now employ all the tools of rationality to discover, dissect and manipulate the magical world around him. He is no longer a passive observer in a strange, scary universe, but rather an active explorer from the get-go, more like a college student touring a new country, than a child transferring to a new school. While the new Harry is perhaps a less relatable character for real 11-year-olds, he is much a more interesting character for the adult reader. Harry's mix of cynicism and wide-eyed wonder felt genuine and appropriate, while at the same time providing us with an alternate view of the magical universe from a scientific point of view.

The other great divergence of HPMOR from the original lies in the tone of the story. The original makes clear the moral standing of each character(except in the very last book), including the much beloved Snape, whose true nature was eventually revealed. HPMOR never allows its characters to fit comfortably into explicit moral brackets, with the difficulties of seperating "good" from "evil" as one of its central themes. None of the characters are safe from moral ambiguity, not Harry, not Hermione, not even Dumbledore(who *spoilers* admitted that he may very well become the next Dark Lord after the fall of Voldemort) Yet in this grey alternate universe, we feel the anguish and joy of each character more acutely there ever before. Because the reader can now see how there are no easy choices for any of the characters, the plight of the characters feels more tragic. And with true victories few and far between, when a character does manage to come out ahead in an impossible situation, the accompanying euphoria is truly uplifting.

Ironically, this more gritty and realistic universe provided a much more optimistic world view than that of the original. Compared to original's utopic depiction of magical Britain, HPMOR, by making clear the deficiences of a pre-industrial, logicless society, puts muggles and wizards on a much more equal standing. In this world, nothing is perfect, not even magic. That muggle scientists have achieved what even wielders of magic have deemed impossible is testament to the strength of our spirit of enquiry and discovery. Some have found such overtly humanist elements in the story to be naive and unrealistic. But I found it to be an effective counter-weight to the over-adulation of magic as the answer to all of humanity's problems, needs and wishes. Yudkowsky allows his readers to immerse in this fantastic world, but also remembers to remind us that in many ways, we can already do magic.

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Jul 20, 2012 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Harry Potter + science + philosophy = slightly mind boggling + very entertaining

All of the above is true.

However, whether or not I have truly read this fan fiction is a different question. In one sense, I have read it. In another, I have not. The reason for my discontinuity can easily be explained. I have read all of this work that exists up to this point in time. However, this book is far from complete.

In any case, though, I will accept that I have "read" this book because I can't be "current...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Virginia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sciencefictionfantasy

So nerdy, so wonderful! My favorite line is Harry's family motto, "You can never have enough books!"
Everyone should give it a try, especially if you aren't morally opposed to harry potter and sometimes like rationality.

Even if you don't want to get through the whole thing, if you take the chapters as short stories the first few chapters or 100 pages are a compete riot.

If you're a historian you'll appreciate his occasional appeals to historical occasions during his search for moral high ground,...more So nerdy, so wonderful! My favorite line is Harry's family motto, "You can never have enough books!"
Everyone should give it a try, especially if you aren't morally opposed to harry potter and sometimes like rationality.

Even if you don't want to get through the whole thing, if you take the chapters as short stories the first few chapters or 100 pages are a compete riot.

If you're a historian you'll appreciate his occasional appeals to historical occasions during his search for moral high ground, or at least an internally consistant set of rules for himself.

If you're a scientist or SF geek you'll appreciate that this Harry is, too.

If you're neither, but you like Harry Potter, then this is a funny departure and somewhat flippant response to some of the silly things that went on the HP universe. Not that it isn't serious and a bit scary (in that it's sometimes scary to think about the complexity of good and bad characters beyond, well, good and bad), but it's more light hearted than dark and the extra dimensionality to the characters, if you liked them in the HP books is fun.

Oddly, this book is still in progress (though at 1300 pages it doesn't feel like I've been left with a cliff hanger, though I will come back occasionally looking for new chapters to finish it off). It's free, as it's a fan fiction, and you can read it in pdf, or download a format your ereader can handle. Or if you like, print it out yourself. Which is cheaper than buying a book, and in the end wouldn't "waste" any more paper. :) There's also a pretty good audio book version if you have a commute or work with headphones on.
You can find it online here: http://perf.hpmor.com/

A warning, though, this Harry is sometimes as or more annoying than the original. He's smart, but really full of himself, cold, more like an educated 20-something than an 11 year old, and almost always gets his way. Also, if you are triggered by people who are evil by not thinking of their enemies as people, or by callus conversations about doing evil-death-eater-like things, avoid it too. (less)

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Jun 11, 2012 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Preface with: I haven't read any of Rowlings' books.

This is the 'version' of Harry Potter where...

... His adoptive father was a professor of biochemistry, and hence Harry wound up spending a lot of his time getting tutored in science by his father's grad students.

... Harry is about as "ferociously scientific" as Ender Wiggins was militarily ferocious.

... Harry has, surprising for an 11 year old, a basic understanding of calculus, decision theory, game theory, and such like. The sort of understan...more

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May 21, 2012 Daniel added it

It starts off somewhat simply, as an exploration of what the actual underlying rules of Potterverse magic are, via the simple substitution that Harry Potter was raised by loving Muggle stepparents who taught him a lot about science and the scientific method. He gets one of those magic Bag of Holding devices and starts wondering, "Just how does it know what item I ask it for?" He finds that when he wants his bag of Galleons, he can say "Bag of gold" but not "Bag of element 79"; he can ask for gol...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I can't decide if this was really good or really bad. As a novel (or the majority of a novel) it was pretty terrible. As fanfic it seemed pretty good (to me, which doesn't mean anything, because I am not the kind of guy that reads fanfic at all). I guess I'll go with three stars which seems to say both of those things at once.

Concept that I like: take 11-year-old Harry Potter, about to enter Hogwarts. Make him an incredibly astute and science-minded young boy, and then see just how he'd react to...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Alliana Vivares rated it 2 of 5 stars

Alright, my first complaint is that it should warn readers that it contains sensitive issues. I almost choked on the chocolate I've been eating when I read Draco's nonchalant threat of rape. I mean, hello? Isn't he still eleven? And okay, maybe there are lots of open-minded eleven-year-olds in the world but saying that to an almost complete stranger is too much! Harry was very close to being bad here; it made me wonder what that idiot Petunia had been teaching him. He is rude to his elders, whic...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Jayesh rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This weekend while at my weekly NCC at IIT Kanpur, started rereading this really awesome fanfiction by Eliezer Yudkowsky hosted here. (How I was doing that at NCC is another story. Maybe some other day I would write about that too.)

If you too are a Harry Potter or Ender fan (or anyways you liked the books but don't believe in being 'fan'atic abot something) this is a fic for you. This was the first time I was reading a fanfic and was obviously apprehensive about their quality. But this one surel...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Eva is currently reading it

Shelves: fanfic

Two facts
1.I loove the Harry Potter series and have reread the books so many times it's not even funny.
2.I've never read Harry Potter fanfic.

This fanfic caught my eye a couple of days ago and after reading just the first couple of pages I'm hooked.
Specifically, this statement from Professor McGonagall has me hooked:
"Hogwarts is quite capable of teaching the basics. And I suspect, Mr. Potter, that if I leave you alone for two months with your schoolbooks, even without a wand, I will return to thi...more

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Jul 12, 2012 sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this, honestly. When I stumbled upon it and read that description, I figured it was going to be brilliant. So naturally it wasn't. The author leaves a note saying if you don't like it by chapter five, wait until chapter ten, and if you still don't like it by then, get out. That's exactly what I'm doing.

This isn't the first book (so to speak) where the idea is wonderful but it's executed horribly. For starters, the writing is a bit sloppy at times, and when I say at times, I mean...more I wanted to like this, honestly. When I stumbled upon it and read that description, I figured it was going to be brilliant. So naturally it wasn't. The author leaves a note saying if you don't like it by chapter five, wait until chapter ten, and if you still don't like it by then, get out. That's exactly what I'm doing.

This isn't the first book (so to speak) where the idea is wonderful but it's executed horribly. For starters, the writing is a bit sloppy at times, and when I say at times, I mean every single second of this made my head hurt because it was painful to read. You can also swap painful with boring, because more than anything, that's all I got from it. Harry is even more of an arrogant little jerk who spends his time proving that he has to be right. He talks down to everyone, throws around words bigger than he is, and ultimately makes himself look like an ass with his attempts at humor. I should not hate an eleven-year-old this much! But I couldn't help it, and I think the biggest reason why is because he never once acts like an eleven-year-old.

I wasn't even interested in wherever the plot was going. I'm assuming there's some world-domination crap that could probably be interested if it was more realistic (I know it's the wizarding world, but you know what I mean!), but I got tired of listening to Harry mock the world the original Harry loves so much. Even McGonagall makes cracks at "being locked up in a cupboard for ten years," and more than I was appalled at that bad attempt at a joke, I was a little surprised that the author would write the characters so badly. The ironic part is that the start of chapter eleven (which I reached when I decided to call it quits) includes an author's note saying "in which everyone else in the wizarding world remains the same but only Harry's character is changed). Because really, from what I've heard that comes from the story later on, every character is different. Every character is like one asshole hipster of the original. Original Harry loved being a Seeker? Smart Harry thinks Seekers completely ruin the point of the sport.

This was so infuriating and painful to get through, and I only made it through ten chapters. I only gave it two stars because I adore the idea of the story. I could sit here for a while and tear this story apart, but I have better things to do with my time.(less)

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Jun 22, 2012 Eva rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite

This is just a review for Chapters 1-62, and there has been a total of 85 chapters posted as of today.

This fanfiction is excellent. Not just excellent, amazing. Mildly ingenious in its concept, hilarious in its rendition, and most of all, worthy of the original books.

The logic is clever(not merely clever- scientifically sound- read the notes on the website if you don't believe me), the characters are likable.

Yes, it can get silly at times, from Harry throwing fits to the rather ridiculous level...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This several-novel-length, ongoing fanfiction asks the question: what if instead of being raised by the cruel Dursleys, Harry Potter was raised by loving foster parents who encouraged him to hone his intellect and solve his problems with science and reason? His excitement about learning that magic is real (once he even decides that it's true) is immediately overwhelmed by his need to discover how and why it works, and his exploration of these concepts is what makes this story so entertaining.

Bu...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Douglas Summers.Stay rated it 5 of 5 stars

Imagine if Ender Wiggen were put in Harry Potter's place, and the cunning of other characters upgraded in a similar way. Yudkowsky is a gifted writer, and he plays off the tropes of fanfiction and the idiosyncrasies of the world of Hogwarts in a way that transcends the genre. The books is at times laugh out loud funny, touching, inspiring, and always very smart. Writing fanfiction in order to get more people to read your blog about obscure logical fallacies!? You'd have to be a genius to actuall...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Leo8 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: loved-it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Marking that I have finished reading this book seems weird. In half a month, another story arc is scheduled to be published, and the author is rewriting many of the earlier chapters. So, for the sake of clarity, let me note that, at the time of writing this review, chapter 85 was the last published chapter.

The book takes you on a journey unlike any other. Eliezer is as much concerned with having cutting edge cognitive research integrated into the plot as having a good story and well built chara...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kevin by: Sam Jaques

My son, Sam, recommended this to me. It is by the author of his revered rationalist blog "Less Wrong". The premise is that a rationalist, experimental, scientific Harry Potter enters Hogwarts.

That didn't sound promising to me, or to most people. Fan Fiction. Life lessons lightly clothed in fiction.

To my astonishment, it's great. It's funny, exciting, involving, and there is a real satisfaction is seeing how easily the canon problems are brushed aside. By that I mean that this Harry is confronte...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Adam Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

At the time of this review the story is 85 chapters, and counting, long (longer than the actual books), and still within the timeframe of the first book.

An alternate world where the role of Harry Potter is played by a somewhat sociopathic Sheldon Cooper. Instead of marrying the repugnant mr. Dursley, Harry's aunt Petunia married a respected physicist resulting in Harry being raised in a loving environment where knowledge is praised and making the most of your life an acceptable goal. Harry appro...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Ticktocktober rated it 1 of 5 stars

Great idea; terrible execution. In fact, I think the summary is completely misleading. While some scenes had me laughing out loud, I spent most of my time cringing or raising one eyebrow or the other; HPMOR is saturated with Yudkowsky's blatant disdain and a condescending tone.

Characters are, for the most part, wildly out of character. Harry completely fails to act like an 11 year old boy, and reads like a thinly-veiled, sociopathic self-insert. Draco is also worrying sociopathic, even beyond t...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Rajiv rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have never felt the need to take fan fiction seriously. They are, at best, exercises of creativity in a predetermined world, and the best of them usually do not stray too far from the established lore. As it stands, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is the only exception – it has hooked me in so deeply that I just cannot get out of the fascinating world that its author, Eliezer Yudkowsky, has created.

If you have always felt that Rowling’s characters, and vision of Hogwarts and magi...more I have never felt the need to take fan fiction seriously. They are, at best, exercises of creativity in a predetermined world, and the best of them usually do not stray too far from the established lore. As it stands, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is the only exception – it has hooked me in so deeply that I just cannot get out of the fascinating world that its author, Eliezer Yudkowsky, has created.

If you have always felt that Rowling’s characters, and vision of Hogwarts and magical Britain were lacking then you weren’t the only one. They always felt absurd to me as well, lacking coherence and sense in a world that exhibited elitism towards ordinary human beings and looked down at science. The ignorance they displayed is appalling. Yudkowsky addresses these issues with his fantastic fan fiction that offers a whole new take on this universe.

The world remains the same, but with some major differences. Petunia, finally showing some sense, has married a professor at Oxford after she took a ‘beauty’ potion from her sister. Together they raise Harry Potter with love and affection, instilling in him an undying love for rationality and scientific inquiry. Harry is a child prodigy who is acerbic and downright pedantic at times, but brilliant nonetheless. He is a combination of the qualities of Artemis Fowl and Yagami Light (Death Note), displaying intelligence and wit simply unheard of in an eleven year old boy. He is joined by Hermione, who is instantly marked as his rival and romantic interest, and Draco, who is charming and a smart social manipulator. Ron and Hagrid are blissfully absent since they do not have anything to offer in Yudkowsky’s vision of magical Britain; both characters become part of the scenery and do not play any essential roles.

The storyline involves a lot of political maneuvering, social manipulation, being extremely clever, and copious amounts of rationalism. It results in an extremely funny story where Snape gets taken down a notch, Dumbledore is shown to be an clumsy strategist, and McGonagall remains forever flustered by everything that happens around her. Oh, and Harry is a Ravenclaw.

It is a fun and easy read that gets complicated at times. This is due to the fact that Yudkowsky writes about advanced topics such as Bayes’s Theorem, cognitive bias, and artificial intelligence, among many things. The simple but academic writing style makes these topics clear and accessible. The plot is intriguing and the author somehow manages to fit ‘rational’ ideas into every other chapter while still remaining captivating. The story is highly didactic, aimed at teaching you the abovementioned concepts, among other things, while at the same time pokes fun at the goofier bits of the original series. Yudkowsky is also adept at generating tension that drives the story forward.

That is not to say that the writing isn’t without its flaws. Yudkowsky dumps a lot of information on the reader at times, which slows the story down to glacial speeds. The info dumps are especially pronounced at the beginning, but diminish as the story picks up. This also means that external characterization is relatively sparse. However, their internal thought processes are laid out by the author, offering us insight into what makes them tick. In fact, it works better than you might think, though it’s not for all types of readers. Although the final work is concise and well-presented, it still lacks the polish that published works have. That can be fixed in the hands of a capable editor though, who can organize and trim it down to a more enjoyable read than it already is.

“Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is still an ongoing project that has 77 chapters as of today (January 18, 2012). It took me about eleven days to absorb it all. It has reintroduced me to rational thinking and changed my outlook towards the world. This ‘book’ simply cannot be recommended enough if you want to have a terrific time while broadening your horizon by learning about science, philosophy and rationality.(less)

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Mar 12, 2013 Skaramuche rated it 3 of 5 stars

MOR reads like Ayn Rand- or, more charitably, Orson Scott Card, or Spider Robinson. It's deeply well-plotted and I honestly love its take on the characters and the world, but it suffers greatly from its preachy nature. Like the authors I named, Yudkowsky has a philosophy in mind, about extraordinary people who're smarter and more capable, and how they should react to and treat others; like those authors, he's so married to his position, so sure that his favorite way to think is the One Right Way...more

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May 17, 2013 Robroy Mccandless rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is everything that is good and promising about the fanfiction world. Yudkowsky takes the universe of Harry Potter, obeys all the rules that Rowling established, but extends the world from the basic premise of The Boy Who Lived from being abused by the Dursleys, to being intellectually stimulated and challenged by Professor Evans. This has vast reaching repercussions on how the story of how a budding scientific Harry’s enters Hogwarts and quickly beco...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Madeline rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-all

I don't read much fanfic but as fanfics go this is relatively decent. I like the premise, although much more is changed than I would have expected based on the initial author's note. Quite frankly I liked the beginning much more than the later chapters; the battles between armies began to pale and humor mostly vanished as the story arcs began getting larger and more involved, sometimes to the point of being ridiculous. The complex plots are in areas poorly explained and difficult to track, and a...more

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Aug 29, 2011 Tessa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal-or-magic, speculative

So, this fanfiction is still being written, so I can't be said to have read all of it yet. However, I have read everything that is available so far. This is my first time reading fanfiction, and I'd be interested to know how many are written by scientist-philosophers. Anyway, the Harry in this version of Harry Potter is smarter than the "real" Harry, but he starts out more insufferable, due to his penchant for infodumping. You can't blame the kid, really, he just wants to merge magic and science...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Eric Herboso rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: hard-fantasy, fanfiction, rationality

Not only is this the best fanfiction I've ever read, it is among my favorite novels of all time, and so far I've only been able to read up to chapter 85.

This is a reimagining of the canonical novels of Harry Potter where the main character is extremely rational. Although he is a preteen, this version of Harry Potter has a mind on par with an extremely gifted 18 year old, and it shows. His nemesis, Voldemort, is similarly increased in intelligence by a dramatic amount. The Tom Riddle of this fanf...more

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May 28, 2012 Myeve123 rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I read books like this, other commercially driven books often feel rushed. That is, a book must have a problem to solve and writers need to establish or address that fast. But see, sometimes I read not because of the destination, but because of the adventure. In this case, to quote Prof Quirrell, I'm curious to what Harry would do next.

So here's a book that intrigues me, makes me laugh in ungodly hours, which it's lack of predictable plot and realism doesn't bother me, and in the end, some...more

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About Eliezer Yudkowsky

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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 (...more

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