Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
⛰ What It's About It's a Harry Potter fanfiction book written by Eliezer Yudkowsky, an AI researcher and decision theorist. In Yudkowsky's parallel universe, Petunia is married to a famous biochemistry professor at Oxford university and Harry is a nerdy genius kid who was brought up as a science-minded child. Harry goes on to explore the magic world from a rationalist's point of view; trying to apply scientific method to the study of magic. HPMOR adapts the story of Harry Potter to explain complex concepts in cognitive science, philosophy, and the scientific method. 🧠Thoughts This is not going to be a conventional review; I will provide extracts from the book with my own comments or with further explanation from trustworthy sources (referenced at the end of the blog post). I decided to do so for two reasons; first, I thinks these extracts offer a glimpse of the book that's enough to make you decide whether you want to read it or not. Second, I believe that the...