Since Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is apparently still a thing, I figured I’d spend a few minutes before fediverse monster-movie night to collect relevant links:

And a question dug up from one of those old threads: OK, so, Yud poured a lot of himself into writing HPMoR. It took time, he obviously believed he was doing something important — and he was writing autobiography, in big ways and small. This leads me to wonder: Has he said anything about Rowling, you know, turning out to be a garbage human?

  • blindsight@beehaw.orgEnglish
    13·
    6 hours ago

    I enjoyed watching that, even as someone who really liked HPMoR.

    I wasn’t aware of a lot of the wider context around the author and the rationalist movement. For example, I read HPMoR with Harry calling all the wizards in the book NPCs as commentary about Rowling’s writing (that her characters and magic system bend to suit the plot, as very few characters have any agency) so every other person at Hogwarts is an NPC, but if Yudkowsky actually believes that people who aren’t rational are, effectively, subhuman, then that twists the interpretation of HPMoR rather dramatically. I’m still not convinced Yudkowsky thinks that, but it’s disheartening to hear that some HPMoR readers basically founded a cult that does believe that.

    Thanks for the link! I should check out his other videos. He seems like a really hoopy frood.

    • swlabr@awful.systemsEnglish
      10·
      9 hours ago

      I’m still not convinced Yudkowsky thinks that

      You should keep it that way; if you read more of his shit then his fascist proclivities will trip over themselves trying to convert you. But also it’ll cause psychic damage. So best to just avoid.