@ Oneiros: I think that part meant that the hat wouldn't offer Harry the total stats, part of it's 'programming' was to keep those things to itself, and Harry had no more bargaining chips to get it with.

Anyway, I thought the chapter was great. Sure, it was all a sorting- but it didn't bore me, which would usually be the problem with it being all a sorting. Therfore, it's all good and entertaining as hell.

4.5/5

 

What would the point be of a hat with memory, if it could not relate it? If sorting was a mirror function, why would it even need it? Does not compute. THe whole thing might make sense if you were to write it out as an equation (but, I doubt it), but it doesn't make it any easier to read and could be explained much more succinctly.

What might have been more interesting (and funny) is if Harry, confronted by a mirror intelligence, could have kept the argumentation to something like..."

"But Weimer's doctrine.." Harry began.

"Of course. But mutual exclusion implies..." The Hat interrupted.

"Don't be ridiculous. The only way is if both factors...oh, oh! You crafty bastard! But for me to turn dark? Seems pretty implausible." Harry said in a rush, his thoughts fevered and hectic as they rushed from one esoteric notion to the next.

Through it all, the hat kept quiet, seemingly content to let Harry work it through to the inevitable conclusion.

At last, Harry balanced the competing factors in his head and couldn't stop his jaw from dropping as he came to a sudden realization.

"It can't be!" He said, shuddering a little. All around the Great Hall, students and faculty members exchanged nervous glances as Harry's body shook from either mirth or sadness. Minerva gripped the edge of her shawl with white knuckles, a desperate prayer on her lips.

Finally, Harry gained voluntary control of his breathing and adressed the hat. "So that's it then? You've made up your mind?"

"Unfortunately so, Mr. Potter. It's all here in your head. But never fear, you will do well in....."

"Hufflepuff!"

 

Well, the sorting wasn't supposed to be 'just' funny.

Anyway, it did make sense in a way. The Hate having Databanks and a few programs to keep it going in normal times, but being 'fueled' by the person it's on when it comes to most processing power to the point it is a mirror intelligence (so it related better to each person).

So, basically, it has some fuzzy stats about previous sorting but even with normal children he is just sentient, not sapient.

 

I agree that that the story is definitely an Author Tract. I just wanted to say that Eliezer doesn't publish anything that he's not going to finish, that he is competent at what might be called the mechanical aspects of fiction writing, and that he has the technical background to get both real-world science and fantasy-world science right. So if you think this story is too ambitious to succeed, rest assured that Eliezer isn't going to flame out or find himself in over his head (or, at least, any more in over his head than he's been so far), but if you just don't like the story, then, well, you don't like it and that's that! As a wise guy once said, "There is no accounting for taste."

 

I get that. I'm not even suggesting that what I wrote is particularly good, just that you could illustrate the basic points of 1) rationalist philosophy 2) dark lord prevention 3) humor, without getting into these long, twisty diatribes. In this case, I think it made Harry out to be too angsty to fit the rational!Harry mold.

 

I'm honestly glad that he has said ability, it gives me hope.

If he wants too, he is more than welcome to post this in our WBA and use the services his fans will provide here. We may not be the nicest guys, we may not always be polite, but in the end we always do provide excellent comstructive criticism.

 

I think the author has taken logic a bit too far. It would be different if Harry just tried to find the limits of magic but in the story he just trashes half the magic system. It kinda takes the magic out of Harry Potter. Good writing, good flow of plot, some humor but it's not for me. 3/5

 

While all of this may be true, there still hasn't been any consistency from the author in his writing. He's going all over the place and needs to settle down a bit instead of getting high on reviews. I just want more chapters on par with Ch. 7. I'll stop complaining if that starts happening.

 

ah ok.

I'd say that i myself liek those twisty diatribes, but i know that i hate lots of things people find awesome, and a lot of things i like are found horrible, so maybe i just have weird tastes.

I think it was the point. Yeah, the author does tend to exaggerate one's reaction a whole lot (a point brought by many here). However, i do think this interpretation of Harry is one of a Harry that can get over himself, and can make mistakes, both in the 'rational' mind-frame, and in the 'emotional' one.

So, yeah, i liked this chapter because it showed this Harry is still lying to himself.

Any example?

Or do you mean magic must be inherently illogical?

Because so far Harry hasn't been able to understand anything about the magic- he just has decided that he must do so.

Also, HP magic irregularity is more a trace of Rowling that something that is purposeful (like the mess with the weasley's age).

 

Still a wait and see story for me. It could be good it could rapidly become very bad.

I do agree with everyone who said that its a bit heavy on the mechanical side. I mean there's nothing technically wrong but it seems to be missing that essential part of making it a great fic.

3/5

 

Nothing in particular, just the attitude that he must analyze everything to confirm what we already know:Yes, it is possible to do all that.

I get surprise, I get some disbelief but overthinking things, I don't know, it kinda spoils the "fairytale" magic. You know, the wonder, the amazement, the awe.

 

I personally believe the magic is not magic. There is a book series that I can't remember the name of right now but it has a great explanation behind magic. Basically, magic is invisible worm-like creatures who come from the "other side" when a wizard calls for them. The reason they do this is because with ever travel they do between the worlds they barrier becomes weaker and they seek to invade our world.

Not saying that this would work in Harry Potter universe, just saying that I really believe that some unknown physical power is behind magic and it can be measured and, with the right methods, artificially reproduced.


I like this fic as a quick read, I do not like the fact that the fic is all over the place. 4/5 right now because the story amuse me but do not keep me waiting for the next chapter.

 

That... strangely reminds me of Equal Rites, the only Discworld book I've read. Could that be what you're thinking of?

 

Nah, the Things of Discworld have nothing to do with magic itself, they're just the hangers on to the universe that can poke through if magic weakens the barrier between their reality and the Disc enough. Besides, they look more like chickens.

 

The issue I had with it is that it doesn't fit with the Order of the Phoenix song at all. Particularly the whole "It's my job to sort you, but I don't think it's necessarily the best idea and you guys should really reconsider it".

I also generally dislike how he just says "hey look, this is stupid, haha", rather then trying to find a reasonable way a system could be set up. The best example I have of this is when he rants about Quidditch being dumb - he immediately jumps to the conclusion "people are irrationally attracted to this game that sounds stupid based on two sentences about the scoring" rather than "that scoring system sounds really odd, there's probably other factor I'm not hearing about." I find it much preferable to come up with clever explanations for weirdness than to just point and laugh.

 

now knowing more about the credentials of the author, I have to say that the author will indeed try to rationalize magic. If Harry cannot make logical sense of it by the end, the whole point of introducing rationality will have been moot. I fear that by the end we will have magic constrained by physical laws and some pseudo-science on the author's part. While it might be extremely creative of the author to formalize magic in such a way, it will be basically useless for the reader, both entertainment and information wise.

The 'just kidding' part by the hat at the end was completely unfunny as well.

However I was pleased to read about some of the AI topics introduced in the fanfiction that I have also studied in class.

 

Done with this story as of the latest "chapter" if you can actually call it that now. In my opinion it jumped the shark in Chapter 9 and hasn't recovered since. It's all review-mongering.

After all the bolstering about keeping with the integrity of the story and an attempt to stay away from cliches, the author has lost all credibility in my eyes.

Chapters 1-8 4/5
Chapters 9-11 1/5
Overall 2/5 (I round down in this instance for him/her being a douche-bag.)

 

Wow, what a useless update. Author's notes and review responses. Someone hasn't read the FF.Net rules. And he really is getting irritatingly preachy now. Especially this bit:

To start giving writing advice when your own work has so many flaws is odd. And what a wonderfully unsubstantiated statement, "The brain mostly works by pattern recognition". Oh, so glad that you've cracked problems neurologists have been wrestling with for decades.

 

Reading the reviews for this story on ff.net is a bit like reading the xkcd forums in that the ratio of bootlicking to total reviews approaches one.

And sadly enough, if the author had used this part of the "Omake" as the actual story, it would have been a huge improvement:

 

I'm ignoring the omake, and pretending it never happened.