Harry Potter and the methods of rational thinking

Fan fiction based on a popular children's fairy tale? On my habr ???

Do not hurry.

There are a small number of fiction or popular science books, the author of which directly speaks of such things as the scientific method, cognitive distortions, true rationality, etc. that really distinguishes a scientist from other people. Even fewer of them are written interestingly. And, of course, among them there is almost absolutely nothing that we call fan fiction - that is, written based on some other famous work. Who will write serious things in such a frivolous way?

Meanwhile, the idea is brilliant.

In fact, a scientist is a person exploring the world. The real world is deeply researched, and it is interesting to illustrate what is happening in the head of the researcher through the process of its research - the task is very difficult. A fictional fantasy world would be a paradise for a scientist (he would find a lot of logical inconsistencies, hacks and gaps in it and invent a lot of surprising things on their basis), but alas, according to the laws of literature, an author must believe in his world and prevent conscious holes in its structure .

But if you take not your own, but a strange world? It is desirable, of course, that this world be already widely known to the public. Well, if this world is fantastic (in science fiction there will always be logical holes of a world order of different caliber). It is excellent if this world allows the possibility of a scientist from our world getting into it.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

It is not even necessary to read the whole heptalogy about the adventures of a young wizard with a scar to understand this book. But, like any fan fiction, this book is intended for the reader who read the Rowling saga at least partially.

The author is Eliezer Yudkovsky , the creator of the site yudkowsky.net , a transhumanist and theorist of artificial intelligence, the author of many works about various interesting properties of what is happening between your ears. He probably would have gladly made the main character a fan fiction of himself, but alas, he has a lot to do in the Muggle world. Therefore, the role of the scientist will be Mr. Potter himself.

Harry Potter is a child prodigy. In this story, he was lucky with his stepfather, professor, so now he has a good scientific upbringing and education. Bugs and errors of the wizarding world will be investigated by him with all mercilessness. The instruments of knowledge will be Bayes' theorem, Occam's razor, information theory, theory of intelligence, experimental psychology, the philosophy of transhumanism and other things that are much more interesting than the invented Rowling world itself. Of course, you will have to change some other characters to make them more appropriate for Rational Harry. For example, This-How-His-There-Is Name. After all, the world should not give up to the researcher too easily, right?

It will be fun.

Fan fiction partially translated into Russian . In the English versionmore chapters, but it has not yet been completed. Anyway - read it! By the way, besides a deeply touched scientific topic, there is wonderful humor.