I almost posted this last night. (I was too busy reading it, though.)
I get the same feeling of open-mouthed joy from it that I get from any other Miles Vorkosigan story. It's just that this is the first Vorkosigan story I've ever read that had that Vorkosigan flair while not being written by Bujold. And, OK, not being about Miles Vorkosigan. Or so he says.
This is where I really started laughing: "Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling is watching you from where she waits, eternally in the void between worlds." A few chapters later, I was in love; it's going to be a three-way wedding; me, the Time-Turner, and Eliezer Yudkowsky.
I found it myself just yesterday through a completely unrelated channel. Didn't catch the author at first glance! Seeing Yudkowsky linked to FF.net on HN made me do a double-take. I wonder how long it would have taken me to catch on if I hadn't stopped to finish work. Guess I must go back and finish it now!
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.
I started writing this story in part because I'd bogged down on a book I was working on (now debogged), and that means my top priority was to have fun writing again.
If whoever downvoted this would like to explain why, I'd be interested.
(General consensus seems to be that HPATMOR is in fact an exceptionally good instance of Harry Potter fan-fiction. It therefore seems likely that most people are not as good at writing Harry Potter fan-fiction as Eliezer is. Ergo, his success in getting more visitors to his site by writing Harry Potter fan-fiction is not likely representative of what other people would achieve.)
I suspect that this fanfic is hoping at its best to bring some of Harry Potter fans, of which there are many, to the understanding of rationality and participation in site lesswrong.com
This is wonderful. Every chapter, I find myself exclaiming, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, basking in how awesome this is. Chapter 17 alone would have made the first 16 chapters worth it, if they were not all already worth it.
If you liked this you should definitely also read Three Worlds Collide [1]. Heck, if you like science fiction even only a bit you should check it out. It’s a great story!
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.
Plus, if you discharge the mass, you will have to somehow reclaim it when turning back into an human. Destroying the Earth wasn't a good idea to beging with, but freezing it doesn't sound better.
First all, I like this story. I think it's rather well written. But that statement in the story almost made me close my browser. Harry gets rationality in the modern-muggle world, but is very resistant, and expresses complete unwillingness to except something in the magical world until he can prove it. I feel like if I were in the story and I saw this version of Harry Potter, I'd be calling him an idiot every 4 sentences he says. Just because you don't understand something, doesn't make it impossible.
To quote Men In Black:
"Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. " ~ K
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 :) )
I get the same feeling of open-mouthed joy from it that I get from any other Miles Vorkosigan story. It's just that this is the first Vorkosigan story I've ever read that had that Vorkosigan flair while not being written by Bujold. And, OK, not being about Miles Vorkosigan. Or so he says.
This is where I really started laughing: "Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling is watching you from where she waits, eternally in the void between worlds." A few chapters later, I was in love; it's going to be a three-way wedding; me, the Time-Turner, and Eliezer Yudkowsky.