Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR) is a popular and widely-known Harry Potter AU by Eliezer Yudkowsky,Eliezer Yudkowsky on Wikipedia. also known as Less Wrong. Parts of the story have been translated into fifteen languages.HPMOR More Info. Accessed on July 30, 2018.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality has been referenced on numerous occasions outside of "typical" fannish spaces and has been presented as an example of the "extent to which Potter fans have expanded the universe beyond Rowling’s original designs and helped amplify the series' popularity."18.7.2011, by Daniel Snyder, article in The Atlantic; accessed 18.10.2011 
It has also been heavily critiqued by many fans.Chronological review of HPMOR by su3su2u1. Archived on January 1, 2016. Accessed on July 30, 2018.Hermione Granger Versus the Methods of Rationality by Sam Keeper at Storming the Ivory Tower. Published on August 12, 2013. Accessed on July 30, 2018.Tumblr post by tobermoriansass. Posted on April 21, 2014. Accessed on July 30, 2018.Tumblr post by littlelostmaybelots. Posted on February 27, 2015. Accessed on July 30, 2018.Tumblr post by notyourexrotic. Posted on June 18, 2017. Accessed on July 30, 2018.Tumblr post by essayofthoughts. Posted on June 11, 2015. Accessed on July 30, 2018.
==The Plot==
In the story, Petunia Evans has married a professor for biochemistry and the two of them are raising young Harry in a loving, strongly academic environment. As a result, Harry is inquisitive, precocious and fascinated by science and science fiction. When he finds out that he is a wizard, he tries to apply scientific principles to his study of magic, with sometimes surprising results. 
It examines the system of magic of the Harry Potter series through the lens of science and rationality: for example, it proposes specific sets of rules for Transformation (chapter 15), frequently plays around with time travel, and wonders why wizards never went to space.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality has a complicated plot with many open mysteries. Notable are the roles of Professor Quirrell as Harry's (possibly evil) mentor, and Harry's unorthodox attempts to convert Draco Malfoy to the side of the Science, as well as the strong friendship between Harry and Hermione. Harry also has to fight against his own dark side.
This fic is an example of a re-sorting fic: Harry and Hermione are both sorted into Ravenclaw.
==Publication==
The story was posted at Fanfiction.net in parts starting on February 28, 2010 and completed in March 2014. There are, as of early 2017, has nearly 33,000 reviews at that site. 
Beginning in February 2012, it was posted at a mirror site where there are extensive author notes in blog form for each chapter, progress reports, fanartist acknowledgments, info about the fic's "wrap up" parties, and the promotion of various products such as "Singularity Institute,", "The Center for Applied Rationality" , July 25, 2014 ,and "nutritionally-complete meal-replacement muffins." "MealSquares has now opened the beta (with free shipping) of their nutritionally-complete meal-replacement muffins. Think of it as Soylent in solid form. Be warned that MealSquares are currently very dense (presumably for shipping reasons), but as with Soylent, some people report very good experiences already." -- 
It was briefly for sale at Lulu by someone other than Yudkowsky for a short time in May 2012. May 29, 2012 ;
==Eliezer Yudkowsky==
===Preface at Fanfiction.Net===
Less Wrong's Author's Preface at Fanfiction.Net:
===Intent===
Many fans felt that the messages of the story, combined with Yudkowsky's strong opinions and aggressive cross-marketing mainly for the "Singularity Institute," as well as the "Center for Applied Rationality" "The Center for Applied Rationality is currently conducting their annual fundraising drive ending Jan 31st. As of now, people have donated $49,342 of the $120,000 CFAR needs to continue normal operations this year. Please consider donating to them! Without CFAR, there would be no organized attempts to actually develop, test, and teach the sorts of cognitive skills that I sometimes depict fictional characters as having." -- Author’s Note, Ch. 103, January 28, 2015 and the "Machine Intelligence Research Institute" "The end is now in sight! Thanks to an extremely generous anonymous sponsor, and to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute which decided it was a wise use of my time, I will be spending Aug 26-Sep 25th in a remote house in North Carolina writing the first draft of the end of HPMOR. After this comes a standard seasoning / revising process so don’t get your hopes up for an instant update; but revising is more routine for me, and writing the first draft is the hard part. I can’t make solid promises upon the future, but I believe with >50% probability that we are on track for HPMOR to finish before the end of 2014." -- Author’s Notes, Ch. 102, July 25, 2014 made this fic "bait" for other things than fans of Harry Potter fan fic. "Writing fanfiction in order to get more people to read your blog about obscure logical fallacies!? You'd have to be a genius to actually succeed at that. He is, and he does." -- Douglas Summers-Stay at Goodreads: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, February 2012 
Another example of the very cozy relationship this fic had with fundraising for the "Singularity Institute" was this statement by Eliezer Yudkowsky commenting on someone who wanted to donate $10,000 to the Institute: 
Some fans compared the whole set-up to a cult. See Is This Fic Bait for a Cult?.
 
A fic with a similar universe, scope, and probable intent is Thanfiction's Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness.
===On Genre & Status, Process & Mistakes===
When the fic was finally finished, Yudkowsky wrote of some of his regrets and plans for the future and addressed the low status of fanfic,:
==Promotion==
Yudkowsky frequently incorporated scientific terms and/or theories in the story that he had previously discussed on his blog, Sequences, which he encouraged readers to read. 
The story has a page on TV Tropes Fan Fic: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality on TV Tropes, accessed 18.10.2011, Facebook, group on Facebook, accessed 18.10.2011, a page on the Harry Potter Wikia (archive link); a page on the Less Wrong Wiki (includes many links to fan discussion); and various message boards. 
 
Yudkowsky asked readers to aggressively rec the story to other people: 
Yudkowsky also asked fans to nominate the story for a Hugo Award: 
===Hopes for Rowling's Blessing as Charity Work===
===Wrap Parties===
Yudkowsky organized/facilitated/sponsored "wrap parties" when the fic was complete. He wrote: 
==Podcast==
Beginning in 2011, an audio version of HPMOR was serialised as a weekly podcast, narrated by Eneasz Brodski. A total of 110 voice actors took part in the audio version, playing different characters from the story. The audiobook/podcast was completed on 29 August, 2016 and is available in full as an mp3 at hpmorpodcast.com, or on Archive.org.
==Works Inspired by HPMOR==
In addition to being a fanwork in its own right, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality had a thriving fandom who produced fanworks of all kinds - from fanfic, to fanart, to fan music and more. The fic also influenced a great number of works in other fandoms that came after it, which strove to follow its example in applying rationalist principles to various works of fiction.
===Fanfiction of HPMOR===
HMPOR inspired dozens of fanfics, from epilogues and "missing chapters" to crackfics and spin-off AUs. 
The HPMOR subreddit has a thread entitled 'List of stories similar to HPMOR' which lists 20 of the most popular derivative fics under 'HPMOR fanfiction'List of stories similar to HPMOR on reddit. Published July 31, 2015 (Accessed July 22, 2018)., while Yudkowsky's notes for each chapter on the mirror site listed "recursive fanfictions" as they were published.Author’s Notes, Ch. 102 (archive link), July 25, 2014: an example of the many, many chapter notes on the mirror site which list other fans' inspired works.
A Timeline of HPMOR Fanfiction was created which attempts to put the published fics and fic installments into a chronological order.
:Examples of recursive fic
*Ginny Weasley and the Sealed Intelligence (External link) by BayesWatch: A sequel about Ginny's first year.
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Zombie (External link) by Alexander Wales: Fits in around chapter 94, and contains major spoilers. Harry Potter starts to come around to the idea that souls might exist.
*Nothing Left But Fire (External link) by aphyer: Starts with Harry left in Hogwarts having one week left until Voldemort comes back to kill him; an alternate final arc to HPMOR.
===Fanart and Cameos===
There is a lot of accompanying fanart for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, to the point where HPMOR had its own deviantART group. This was probably encouraged by the fact that Yudkowsky offered fanartists cameo appearances in the story. "(Note: We are now running low on cameo opportunities and cameos for further works cannot be guaranteed.)" -- Fan Art, unknown date "And at the end of the post, when he mentions how there’s been so much art that he can’t make cameos for everyone, I suddenly got a vision of just how awesome it would be to get a call from one of my friends, “OHMYGOSH SO-AND-SO, RATIONALITY JUST UPDATED AND YOU ARE IN IT!” Instead, I shall have to be content with the joy of giving her and myself matching copies of Volume One someday, which I estimate will be at least 35 percent awesomer." -- , 2014ish These needed to be specified by the artist, and could be "transferred" to another person if the artist wanted to give the cameo to someone other than themselves.
*Master List of Fanart collected at HPMOR.org, unknown date (archive link).
Sample Fanart
File:Letter to hogwarts by dzhu-d5p8ah1.jpg|Letter to Hogwarts by Dzhu (Chapter 1 fanart)
File:Everything i believe is false by rhaidot-d6ft75k.jpg|Everything I Believe is False by Rhaidot (Chapter 2 fanart)
File:Harry draco hogwarts express by dinosaurusgede.jpg|Muggles had reached the moon by dinosaurusgede (Chapter 7 fanart)
File:To take the diary or not by dinosaurusgede.jpg|to take the diary or not by dinosaurusgede (Chapter 26 fanart)
File:Harry's human patronus by bojanglesthe3rd.jpeg|A Still More Glorious Dawn by Bojanglesthe3rd (Chapter 45 fanart)
File:Christmas present by whatevercat.jpg|Christmas Present by WhateverCat (Chapter 85 fanart)
===Other "Rational" Fanfiction===
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality inspired something of a trend in rational fanfiction, which resulted in many other works being published in various fandoms that explored alternative possibilities for the canon storylines and characters, all centered around rationality, logic, consistency and the scientific method.
Some of these works outright acknowledge HPMOR as an influence or inspiration; others do not, but all were published during or after the time period that HPMOR was serialised.
*Luminosity by Alicorn: A Twilight canon divergence AU in which Bella is a rational self-awareness junkie who keeps a note of everything that crosses her mind.
*Friendship Is Optimal (External link) by Iceman: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic AU. Hanna, the CEO of Hofvarpnir Studios, has just won the contract to write the official My Little Pony MMO. She builds an A.I., Princess Celestia, and gives her one basic drive: to satisfy everybody's values through friendship and ponies. (2012)
*Branches on the Tree of Time (External link) by Alexander Wales: Terminator canon divergence AU. Kyle Reese has traveled backwards in time, not to save Sarah Connor, but to help her rewrite the faulty utility function of Skynet. Together, it's possible that they might avert Judgment Day and save the world from nuclear Armageddon - and hopefully create a utopia ruled over by an AI god in the process. (2013)
*Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (External link) by Sir Poley: A Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover. Milo, a genre-savvy D&D Wizard and Adventurer Extraordinaire is forced to attend Hogwarts, and soon finds himself plunged into a new adventure of magic, mad old Wizards, metagaming, misunderstandings, and munchkinry.
*A Bluer Shade of White (External link) by Alexander Wales: Frozen AU. Six years after her coronation, Elsa rules over Arendelle, using the power of ice to improve the lives of her citizens. (2014)
*The Arithmancer (External link) by White Squirrel: Harry Potter AU. Hermione grows up as a maths whiz instead of a bookworm and tests into Arithmancy in her first year. With the help of her friends and Professor Vector, she puts her superhuman spellcrafting skills to good use in the fight against Voldemort. (2014)
*The Metropolitan Man (External link) by Alexander Wales: A Superman AU set in 1934, in which Lex Luthor is the villain protagonist coming to grips with the arrival of an alien god. (2014)
*Animorphs: The Reckoning (External link) by WhatWouldEnderDo: Animorphs canon divergence AU "with the intent to fix/sane-itize/create internal consistency, allowing rational agents to take things to the extreme". Featuring a competent Visser Three, and Animorphs who are actually trying to win despite being inexperienced and unprepared. (2015)
*Pokemon: The Origin of Species (External link) by Daystar Eld: Pokémon AU. Enter the world of Pokémon from a rational perspective. Instead of starting his journey in ignorance, Red has spent his years studying the creatures so central to his world... and he doesn't quite agree with all the information in his books. No time for rookie mistakes here: he's on a quest to discover the true nature of Pokémon, and maybe even find out where they really come from. (2016)
*A Song for Two Voices (External link) by Swimmer963: Heralds of Valdemar AU. A multi-volume re-write of The Last Herald-Mage trilogy, in which Vanyel Ashkevron makes different choices. (2018-2021)
==Controversy and Criticism==
===Exploiting Fanfiction to Further Personal Philosophy And Professional Work===
Many fans have focused on how Yudkowsky used Methods of Rationality to promote his "rationalist" philosophies and his professional work with the Singularity Institute. Some of them favorably...
...and others much less so:
Some fans felt Yudkowsky was being exploitative of the Harry Potter fandom in general, especially considering he hadn't read past Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book.Shinysavage, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 11 July 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.)
===Is This Fic Bait for a Cult? ===
Many fans felt that the messages of the story, combined with Yudkowsky's strong opinions and aggressive cross-marketing with the "Singularity Institute," made this fic "bait" for other things than fans of Harry Potter fan fic.
Fans in 2011 wrote: 
The "victoria bitter mess" refers to the early-2000's Lord of the Rings debacle involving a fan known at the time as Victoria Bitter (one of many pseuds for Thanfiction) who raised money and duped a lot of people for a phoney charity, as discussed in the book When a Fan Hits the Shit.
====Comments at the Author's Blog====
There are 247 comments in 2012 at Yudkowsky's blog discussing whether or not this fic was part of cult propaganda and was part of a lure to gain believers. See Cult impressions of Less Wrong/Singularity Institute archive link for "Cult impressions of Less Wrong/Singularity Institute." 
Some comments from this discussion are below.
 
 
 
===Self Promotion===
The single-mindedness and Yudkowsky's strong personality rubbed some fans the wrong way. At the end of chapter 9, one fan reported, "Author issued a dare in the AN: if you guess what the last line of chapter 9 refers to before chapter 10 is posted on April 3rd, the author promised to tell you the entire plot."wolf550e, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 03 April 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.)
Later, in another A/N, Yudkowsky reacted to the large number of reviews he'd gotten since starting Methods:
Other fans had issues with Yudkowsky's request for money in order to produce chapters of the fic quicker. Yudkowsky posted this to the header for Chapter 73 at Fanfiction.net in August 2011 quoted at , along with the statement from a fan: 'It was in the author's notes for chapter 73, posted at the top of that chapter and in his profile. The author routinely erases his own author's notes every time he updates a new chapter, that's why you can't find them -- although that particular note stayed up for a few more chapters than normal." October 12, 2011 :
Fans had this to say: 
In response to the above author's note and the long author's note discussed in the Dark Lord Potter section below, one commenter on fandomsecrets said:
An anon replied, summing up their problem with it succinctly:
Another example of the very cozy relationship this fic had with fundraising for the "Singularity Institute" was this statement by Eliezer_Yudkowsky/Less Wrong, commenting on someone who wanted to donate $10,000: 
===Dark Lord Potter===
The controversial forum Dark Lord Potter was especially aggressive in its members' dislike of the story, and Yudkowsky, and was part of an ongoing feud. 
The Dark Lord Potter forum has dedicated threads for fics to recommend and criticize them. Methods of Rationality's thread started on March 9th, 2010. It inspired a great deal of discussion, debate, and criticism and one forum-goer noted that even early on it had a high number of votes,"63 votes... I honestly think thats the most votes i've ever seen for a fic." -- Innomine, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 24 March 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) though not all of them favorable.
Yudkowsky mentioned the Dark Lord Potter thread in his author's note for chapter 8Taure, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 26 March 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) which was then received badly by many people on the MoR thread. One comment on the thread on March 31st read:
By April 2nd, 2010, the A/N referencing Dark Lord Potter had been removedPerspicacity, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 02 April 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) confirming that Yudkowsky was probably lurking the thread. Several people on the thread gave their best recollection of what the A/N had actually said:
Yudkowsky might also have referred to the negative comments on Dark Lord Potter and sent by them in their reviews as flames according to one post, which read in part, "And on top of that, Yudkowsky seems to be throwing a bit of a hissy fit. He's cited legitimate concerns and called them flames, and does seem to come off as arrogant and egotistical."pdo91, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 03 April 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.)
The Dark Lord Potter thread expressed much frustration with the fic and their thread dedicated to Methods of Rationality had many, many people signing up for the forums just to reply in support of the fic. This was likely because the thread was the third-highest result in a google search for "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" in mid-2010.Ayreon, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 03 June 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) An A/N on a chapter posted in mid-July not only noted that Methods had been "endorsed" by two best-selling authors, but also that "(Of course the Dark Lord Potter forum still has this fic in the Recycling Bin.)"Quoted by wolf550e, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 11 July 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) proving that Yudkowsky was definitely keeping his eye on the thread and surely pointing many of his readers in the direction of Dark Lord Potter. When the A/N was quoted on the forum, one DLP member replied:
On July 12th, 2010, Dark Lord Potter member Silens Cursor posted a copy of a PM he'd sent Yudkowsky and the reply he'd gotten back to the DLP Methods of Rationality thread. Silens Cursor's post detailed several key things in Yudkowsky's fic that Silens Cursor thought could be improved, notably his characterization,Silens Cursor, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 12 July 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) an opinion Silens Cursor had shared on the DLP thread before"...I've lost any hope that this fic is going to get better. I mean, he took a character with a quasi-three-dimensional backstory (Snape) and turned him into a character who would spill his deepest secret to teach Harry 'a lesson'. No, that is not how Snape would behave, the man's much more intelligent than that, and the fact that LessWrong suddenly decided that Snape's backstory needed to be brought forth within this period with no buildup or even hesitation to support his big message ruins the character completely and does a fine job ruining the story along with it." -- Silens Cursor, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 01 July 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.). Silens Cursor invited Yudkowsky to the section of the Dark Lord Potter forums where the members offer constructive criticism to authors.
Yudkowsky's reply was dismissive of this suggestion. He directly referenced a blog called Methods of Rationality Sucks, written by one of the Dark Lord Potter forum members.Mordac, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 06 June 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.), which had very briefly operated in June. Yudkowsky called the Dark Lord Potter forums a cesspit and then thanked Silens Cursor for writing.
Many people in the thread expressed that they were very unsurprised with this reaction. Silens Cursor expressed that they had hoped for better, and that the two biggest factors in how upsetting Yudkowsky's response was were:
Replies from others on the thread:
At this point, Yudkowsky himself showed up on the Methods of Rationality thread, about six hours after Silens Cursor first shared the PM exchange.
One user replied that "nobody really cared about what Silens had to say until you showed up here and whined about... this invasion of privacy, and how we're all terrible people."Inquisition, on the Dark Lord Potter Methods of Rationality thread, posted 12 July 2010. (Accessed 26 July 2018.) Another user was struck by how Yudkowsky had characterized his PM'd reply to Silens Cursor:
In an author's note in late August of 2011, more than a year later, Yudkowsky wrote about his interactions with the Dark Lord Potter and warned his readers off engaging with them:
 
===Publishing On Lulu===
On May 29th, 2012, Dark Lord Potter member Fatality posted a thread on Dark Lord Potter alerting the forum to the sale of physical, printed copies of Methods of Rationality on the site Lulu, a personal publishing service. "So yeah, I know DLP's history with this fic and particularly its author... but lets try to keep this a bit civil," Fatality wrote at the end of his post.Fatality, on the Dark Lord Potter "Methods of Rationality being sold for $11?" thread, posted 29 May 2012. (Accessed 26 July 2018.)
On June 1st in an update on his blog, Yudkowsky addressed the Lulu printing and its subsequent removal, blaming "the troll forum Dark Lord Potter" based on the timing of the thread and the takedown:
Uninvolved fans commenting on this feud later in 2011 said: 
===Bringing Unwanted Attention to Fanfic===
Less Wrong's requests for money, via "The Singularity Institute," caused many fans to cringe, citing the fear of bringing legal wrath down upon fandom and fanworks. 
In August 2011, after Less Wrong embarked on a series of fundraising, many fans were incensed:
(In the 1990's and early 2000's, fanfiction.net banned fanfiction about works by several authors, effectively killing the fandoms for those authors' works.)
===Magic vs. Rationalization===
===Comments Regarding the Author's Tone and Attitude ===
 
 
 
===Straw Men===
===Draco's Comment About Raping Luna Lovegood===
There was much discussion regarding the scene that contained eleven-year old Draco Malfoy's statement that he wanted to rape another character, referring to a conversation between Draco and Harry in chapter seven: 
:Draco groaned. "Not a guy. A girl. A ten-year-old girl, can you believe it? She went nuts after her mother died and her father, who owns this newspaper, is convinced that she's a seer, so when he doesn't know he asks Luna Lovegood and believes anything she says.
:[...]
:Draco snarled. "She has some sort of perverse obsession about the Malfoys, too, and her father is politically opposed to us so he prints every word. As soon as I'm old enough I'm going to rape her."
Some fan comments:
 
 
===Unrealistic Characterizations===
Other fans found Harry to be a whiny Mary Sue:
 
==Fan Comments==
===2010===
===2011===
 
===2012===
===2013===
 
===2015===
===2016===
===2017===
===Unknown Date===
==Meta/Further Reading==
* Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality review by su3su2u1, archived from ; archive.is ("I opened up a bottle of delicious older-than-me scotch when Terry Pratchett died, and I’ve been enjoying it for much of this afternoon, so this will probably be a mess and cleaned up later. Out of 5 stars, I’d give HPMOR a 1.5. Now, to the review (this is almost certainly going to be long)") (not dated)
* ("[I] tried reading Methods of Rationality because I was led to believe it was funny. Someone quoted from passages that amounted to criticism of Rowling’s worldbuilding encased in a narrative. Having been known to rant about this myself, I gave it a try. There were indeed some sections that pick some deserving nits, as I expected. What I did not expect was that I would enjoy the actual story tremendously, indeed, far more than I enjoyed the Harry Potter books.") (March 2011)
* , at Wired Magazine ("Please don’t run away, because at some point here, I’m going to have to say an f-word that I don’t like. I never thought I’d use it. But I’ve done it. I’ve now read 72 chapters of fanfic: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Sorry fanfic lovers–I’m just not into that particular area of fandom. This spectacularly wonderful ongoing story by Eliezer Yudkowsky, however, is worth your time." (July 2011)
* , by submitted 3 years ago by Subrosian_Smithy at Reddit "(A lot of people really, really seem to hate Yudkowsky and HPMOR by extension. Why? Am I missing Yudkowskys secret lair of villainy and puppy eating? Am I subconsciously skimming over all the parts of HPMOR where the narration becomes sexist and pretentious?") (2014ish) 
* by Ben Friesen (alexanderwales) ("Methods of Rationality wants to teach you things. It wants to give you lessons on social psychology, cognitive biases, and science. For the most part, it delivers these lessons in a straightforward way - many of the chapters feature a direct explanation of a concept by Harry, and then in a later scene hit upon that theme less directly. These lessons begin to drop off following the Azkaban arc in favor of other elements - primarily drama.") (March 2015)
* by David Whelan ("Why are regular, hard-working humans spending their time on a piece of fan fiction that doesn't even include a subplot where Hogwarts falls in love with a gigantic squid? And what the fuck have the methods of rationality got to do with the Boy Who Lived?") (March 2015)
* What is Less Wrong and why do people say it is a cult?, by Confuzld, at Reddit ("As critics have attempted to point out, this is basically just reinventing religion and is a cult.") (2016ish)
* As of early 2017, there were 754 reviews of this fic at Goodreads
* As of early 2017, there were 320 comments regarding this fic at 
* The Postmodern Potter CompendiumThe Postmodern Potter Compendium on Tumblr. Accessed on July 30, 2018. and the fic Chaos Is A ButterflyChaos Is A Butterfly on AO3. Accessed on July 30, 2018., both by tobermoriansass, were created in part to explore criticisms of HPMOR.The Postmodern Potter Compendium About. Accessed on July 30, 2018.
*A lengthy exploration of the connections between HPMOR, effective altruism, and AI research appeared in a by Ellen Huet on March 7, 2023.
==See Also==
*HPMOR subreddit
*TV Tropes
*fan tumblr
*podfic podcast
==References==
Category:2010sCategory:2018 Featured ArticlesCategory:Spirituality & Fandom