this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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The more I see him in the real world the more very upset I become that I genuinely really liked his story. HPMOR is a banger, possibly one of my favorite pieces of amateur literature in existence.
I didn't know the author was a wanker at the time of reading, and now that I do, I want to make myself retroactively un-like his work, but I can't.
Don’t tell me you think Roko's basilisk is real
Roko's Basilisk is real, but only for LW rationalists. living with contradictions in our thinking and using gut feeling rather than obsessively chaining Bayesian priors together protected the rest of us.
seriously, Yudkowsky and others were tormented by the thought of the Basilisk. it's a literal mind virus. just one that requires a very specific host (true believers in Timeless Decision Theory.)
Roko's basilisk is a really cool metaphor for fascism. If you help the regime come into existence, you are rewarded; if you fight it, you are punished but only if you are unsuccessful.
well don't count on that. totalitarian regimes have a tendency to be paranoid and to enact rather unpleasant purges at every level of the organisation.
In fairness, I wouldn't count on roko's basilisk either.
It will only be real if you don't make it real, or, uh... Wait a minute...
it is, based on most people who read it, actually very good. the problems start when you analyse it in context with the author. ironically, same thing is true for the source material.
the context makes it better, for me.
Harry is the protagonist, but he's not a good person. he's a ruthlessly utilitarian sociopath who takes himself far too seriously, but it's entertaining to watch his thought processes. again, much like the author.
i mean, as long as you don't go into it expecting to sympathise with the main character and get immersed in the story, yeah. it's not badly written, it's just bad.
most people have bad taste. hpmor spreads vapid grandiose intellectualism and the people who like it should act more like skulblaka: they were trivially manipulated by a cult leader.
to be fair, though, eliezer yudkowsky is being sardonic in the OP text.
HPMOR definitely has its share of problems -- a mary sue main character for one. But it was incredibly unique at the time it came out, in particular for taking the world of harry potter down as many pegs as it could with such exacting precision. I think it's one of the all-time greats (of fanfics) personally, but you definitely have to get past how full of himself the author is.
the thing is
you don't have to get past how full of himself the author is
the entire cult the author founded is in denial of the fascism
If you prefer, there's the "post-rats," which are a spin-off of the same cult and are pretty much identical except every few minutes they make sure to mention how much they don't like yudkowsky anymore.