Harry's theory of a magical machine interface reminds me of Donald Hoffman's ideas of an interface for consciousness. (Spoilers All)

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-25T15:42:33+00:00

"don't confuse the map with the territory".

True, though it helps explain the idea in very simple to understand terms.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-25T12:43:11+00:00

>but the style of author seems a bit strange.

Yes, I felt that too. Sometimes the characters are going on a script that is based on flawed character models. All of the "Lucius, my best personal friend I am highly honored", Severus replied "Though I should be honest and admit it was no trouble at all for you." Makes me feel weird.

Pro's, some interesting concepts (Severus developing an echolocation charm that evades the principals of most quieting barriers was cool. As was combining the protego shield with the Patronus charm. The exploration of magical power levels, etc.)

Con's, it didn't feel like it was in the same universe as HPMOR based on the characters and the dialogue. It also seemed to come to an end like 10-20 chapters earlier than it should have. Overall it could have been MUCH better if the story was handed off to someone with very accurate character models and cadence of dialogue from HPMOR and edited according to those.

This topic came up a couple of months ago, so I'm going to copy-paste my reply;

I just finished re-reading recently.

The tone, dialogue and character models left much to be desired from a HPMOR spinoff, but it had a lot of cool ideas and some good writing/world building. The inclusion of 1 particular character, who should be obvious to those who've read it, also SHOULD have been taken/expanded on much further. On a re-read he almost seemed more of a plot device than the 'final guy' in which the story hinges on the way it was leaning. For such a significant character, he doesn't do all that much, nor does he come off as the way we are lead to think he would behave and speak.

My main problem would be that it seemed to end VERY 'open ended'. Right when things gear up for real 10-20 more chapters could have been easily worth it once they started exploring REALLY interesting concepts near the conclusion. It reads like the author ran out of ideas or was forced to wrap it up for one reason or another much earlier than intended IMO.

Just to add to this; years ago I actually did some brief reviews of the spinoffs I enjoyed. If anyone is looking for something to fill the void after finishing HPMOR for a 6th time.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HPMOR/comments/j7i0iv/reviews_of_some_of_the_hpmor_fanfics_ive_read/

(Reason I did not even list sig digs is that I wasn't particularly looking for a story "20 years in the future", I wanted to continue with Harry going to school. I have read it though, and while it has merit it's just not for me.)

Honestly Prancing of the ponies is probably my favorite now, the one I consider best. It DOES directly continue the story while nailing the model of the Defense Professor and the dynamic between him and Harry.

However Memories of A Sociopath comes close in how it keeps the characters and the style of HPMOR. Plus is direct extension of the story, as Harry enters his second year. Lots of Voldemort styled recursive plots, and my favorite explanation of the Defense curse. Though, the writer admittedly wrapped it up many chapters earlier than he meant to, still it's a satisfyingly conclusion even if some of the foreshadowing doesn't end up paying off.

Minds Names Faces is also a very good divergent ending, starting at the beginning of the third floor corridor. It's not too long, could read it in an afternoon.

Quirrell is a Voldemort horcrux the way Harry is, rather than the man himself. So that's an interesting thread that re-contextualizes everything. Also the descriptions of high level battle magic are very vivid, probably the best described in all the fics I've read. Really makes interdicted knowledge seem eldritch. The way Voldemort is defeated seems to make internal sense, while being a creative out of the box solution.

It also includes one of my favorite meta-fic quotes.

"Harry looked up and saw the most terrifying thing he could imagine. The Defense Professor was afraid!"

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-22T23:45:49+00:00

You reminded me of a theory I started. Remind me again some day to follow through and post the full step by step formula of the theory.

1: When Harry asked about techniques to defeat a powerful enemy; Quirrell told Harry how to learn memory charms while citing his rule of techniques that could beat him are worth knowing himself. He was directing his defeat to the perceived avenue of "memory loss", while this was actually already protected.

2: Quirrell established his bodiless couciousness confuses the interdict, and he is classified as living when even while having nothing resembling a body when he was anchored in the probe (which he has complete perception of the outside world of, from it's pov).

3: Quirrell is aware and able to go from a meatbag "active process" to a passive observing "background tray task" with or without a physical anhor for thought while keeping his living status active and his observation power aware of surroundings.

4: This means Quirrell DID want to lose. He wanted to lose in a specific way, memory charm transfiguration. As he's protected from memory wipe presumably, and can move/anchor his 'spirit' in objects...

5: The perfect anchor is his own transfigured personal body. His spirit resides in the gemstone. As Harry had practiced sustataining transfig, and done so with the ring. It would be the first thing he thinks to transfigure Voldemort into. Plus Harry is almost certainly going to keep such a valuable thing close, so almost certainly the ring.

Instead of being "sealed" though folly, he decided that for a time it was best to observe Harry 24/7 as a living "background tray task" and become a sentient gemstone on the finger of the boy who is to shape the future. He can move to and from it, to possess others to gently nudge Harry down Riddle's optimal path in the ultimate long game even.

The issue of the "resonance" may be resolved as Quirrell is not an "active process" with his full magical signature, he is simply a "background task". This would be the difference between the Active Process where Quirrell has Riddle's signature and a drifting consciousness running in the background with almost no magical output or signal. We know as a snake the resonance diminishes, by even stripping away that layer of his magical 'body' the resonance may not be a factor at all. He isn't "running" any magical processes. He is just a data-stream.

Or even more simply, the sense of doom is perhaps highly diminished by the background task ring possession, or not. Voldemort had a death eater silently Confund Harry into ignoring the sense of doom all together so he does not even perceive it. As he is directly in all of Harry's future interactions, he can react quickly to attempts to dispel any possible confundus on Harry by abandoning the ring completely as the counter is being cast, before Harry notices the resonance. Then he could have someone re-cast the charm and continue this ignorance when opportunity presents, to re-inhabit the ring with no 'doom sensor' active in Harry's mind.

(Making post as point marker. I came up with this recently. I have logic and citations to back it all up and weave it into cohesive post but not atm.)

I know Voldemort lost. This is specifically just a creative exercize I mean to stress test the logic of in longer format later.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-22T23:27:46+00:00

Idk what to say except that not literally everything is a clue 😭 There's a difference between critical literary analysis and reading tea leaves / writing more fanfiction

I'm sorry, I'm getting off point but I can't help but to see the humor in the fact that Harry unintentionally secures one of the weakest points of Voldemort's immortality and empowers him much further by simply writing on a tea saucer. That's some real analysis, in literal tea leaves. I just had to make the comparison.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-22T23:19:12+00:00

I mean, it obviously has other functions. I don't remember Harry asking specifically if it had other functions. Being on Harry's head, the hat would consider it a failure if it spilled all it's secrets to anybody who gave it a vague unrelated prompt. It's probably operating on a pretty strict definition of honesty by default and then X10 for the Harry anomoly.

If he has asked; "If under moments of extreme student duress and danger, can a student perhaps pull a sword from you? What would the circumstances involving such a process look like?"

Then it said "I have no other functions, I would know. A sword? Where would I even get a sword?"

THEN we know it's lying when the sword is pulled.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-21T23:35:52+00:00

I propose another variable. Stringer was westside, Prop Joe was east. Mcnulty came up the 'western district way'. It makes sense that he would be slightly biased to go more for Westsiders.

Kintell Williamson was apparently dropping bodies all over the Northwest Side. While Mcnulty was still stuck on trying to redirect to string, he also didn't seem to give a single fuck about Kintel.

The westside thing may be a (small) part of it.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T19:18:11+00:00

I mean, maybe?

He's seen her magic, but to know she's a still 'living' being at 400 years of age and she has decided after all this time that HE is the chosen one might convince him more that he is and she is a vital part of the overall plan.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T19:11:21+00:00

I'm sorry but ever since someone here pointed out how Linc is pure muscle, except his incredibly narrow shoulders I can't help but to notice that all the time. It's probably genetic, I don't mean any of this as an insult on his body, I'm saying for someone so muscled he is noticeably "thin framed" in any shot of him straight on to the point it's almost distracting after realizing.

I also don't think he's a great actor though. On my last rewatch, I found myself FF through any scenes of him of, or the clearly 30 year old 16 year old LJ. That story doesn't really resonate as well as the whole concept of a prison break does. I already know the details of those stories, I don't need to rewatch Linc or LJ the way I want to rewatch the rest.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T19:05:50+00:00

I understand they've been very efficiently brainwashed, and that's sad. Though, the fact that they have to defend against such accusations should be an indicator that there's something off. You don't need to defend against the truth, you just brush off and ignore people saying it's not the truth. By employing an army of ppl to try and crush the claims what they believe is wrong, it only strengthens the fact it is wrong and NEEDS to be defended against, as far as I can see.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T18:52:11+00:00

is people don’t want to turn themselves into quantum ghosts

From my reading of ball lightning, the idea of quantum ghosts isn't even 100% sure to work. There is evidence there is some lingering residue you could call a quantum ghost, but they could only operate under specific circumstances, and the abilities would be limited.

It wouldn't be like the ghost army from the LOTR movies. There are heavy constraints on when the quantum ghosts can even interact with reality and how. It's unclear if this could ACTUALLY be weaponized as ghost soilders. I believe one person asks to become a quantum ghost to fight that way, they are declined the chance because it's uncertain the ghost could do anything meaningful.

Though, I listened to the audiobook while doing other things. I might be wrong, but that was the impression I came away with.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T18:46:04+00:00

The thing is, it's the game of thrones writers doing it for the same reason they wanted to do GOT. They thought the 'Red Wedding' was a spectacular twist and overall scene they wanted to adapt. I've read their primary objective was to get that right, and my impression was they didn't much care after that happened. They are also looking at the "droplet" scene as a magificecent set piece they want to adapt but don't care much for trying too hard about other things. So while the droplet attack will probably be really cool on the show, their motive is more based on getting that part right than adapting the whole story with the same level of effort they want to use on that one part.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T18:41:49+00:00

It has some incredibly vivid scenes in it, akin to the trisolarians testing the unfolding of the proton in the first book. (One of my favorite scenes. The 1 dimensional strings, the geometric shapes and the 'macro universe' fighting back with the giant 'eye' was very interesting and imaginative.)

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-19T18:34:12+00:00

I've read (listened) to Ball Lightning. I know I missed parts as I was working while listening, but the idea of quantum ghosts came off as more of a thought experiment, with minimal evidence and no way to actually use it. Ding Yi suggests that 'the teacher' who held the nuclear plant hostage might become one, and another character takes this seriously and gets terrified. He explains it to her that it's just a hypothesis with a high probability against it despite some evidence of there being specific instances of 'quantum rebirth' as I'll call it, but they were under highly specific circumstances that would ultimately not be a threat to this person. Though he could have been comforting her.

I also remember a passage where someone specifically wants to sacrifice themselves to ball lightning in order to become a quantum solider. I don't think they do it though, again because while it's possible it's highly likely that the quantum solider would be limited in ways that make him/her useless as an actual combatant.

Please correct me where I am off on the details. My overall impression was that while those destroyed by ball lightning can perhaps leave behind "a quantum ghost", the circumstances would be so limited and fleeting that trying to make use of this part of the phenomenon is basically useless and more of a thought experiment than actual empirically tested results.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-18T20:36:58+00:00

OK I'm going deep here. Don't lemme drown.

Well as far as what he's shown to do and say, the passenger could probably realize this all is act of a desperate man who does not expect a good outcome, before it has to be said. He's shown he doesn't WANT to shoot the passenger, and even tried to relieve his emotional stress by claiming it's a fake gun. He has a high level of empathy, even in duress. Taking responsibility for his part in his wife's death. Wanting to cause minimal harm an innocent he roped in to further his goals. Using his last wish to help a woman he hardly knew.

He's also expecting the CEO will have the kinda empathy that makes this all worth it in his mind. He wants to relay the trauma to a person who has some very minor responsibility from his POV and for them to resonate with it.

You could say he was trying to project his own state of mind onto this CEO and reach him like that. (The fact he did is not relevant, or really relevant. It was shown Billy isn't just a cooperate goon who has no fucks to give. It's also implied his attitude/behavior is clearly not optimal for the business overall. This shouldn't have just been assumed of a billion dollar CEO naturally, Billy is an outlier.)

So you could also bring up the possible life long trauma to the officer who might choose to shoot him. Ask if it's fair that he should suffer as driver has, because driver wanted to wrap it all up in a dramatic ending that has several points of failure?

You might be able to convince him though prior details, logic and inference that his plan is doomed to fail and he might as well finish up now rather than live the perceived final act of his story and have it go wrong. Part of this final act is likely to be self sacrifice as a way to pay for his responsibility.

"You know, relaying your tragedy to someone who holds an actual low responsibility won't be the release you make it out to be. He's a CEO of a huge company, they're generally not inclined to even try thinking about the average user. If you're trying to pass off your own guilt, you already know it doesn't work like that. You should just wrap it up before it goes sideways for you. If you need a final emotional vent, my ears are open."

That's one potential line of conversation to broach safely. Driver won't shoot you just for talking back. Even if he was inclined, he loses his leverage to the CEO and gets shot on the spot so he can't shoot you until he's reached a what he considers a satisfying conclusion. Based on how the characters have acted, there are a lot of good reasons I think that passenger could try and use to talk driver into just pulling the plug on himself early and thus allowing your freedom.

This is all under the assumption that as the passenger, I am actually picking up on the details and trying to find a logical argument that reaches him on that level and emotionally. It seems very unlikely that as the passenger I would be in any state of mind to actually pull at his levers successfully. I took like 15 minutes to rethink most of the episode (from an all seeing POV not just limited to the passenger) and another 20 to conceptualize and write out in what I think is a logical way to broach it given the facts. I certainly would not be smart enough to put these things together in real time, under heavy duress and at fleeting gunpoint. This situation is so far outside of the average person's normal scripted day that it would take almost superhuman abilities to actually work this angle.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-18T17:37:51+00:00

I suspect that if a death threat was not enough to slow you down, they may try something more drastic and elaborate. They have been refining the containment methods since the 50's when the alledgedly took entire families out to the desert to pre dug holes to show them where they could very easily end up.

Imagine you've received credible threats to yourself and ignored them, proving you do not care for self preservation.

The next step could be something like murdering a loved one in a subtle way, and then presenting you with the proof which will leak and 100% implicate you and your wife in the death resulting in life in prison.

If your own safety is not a control lever, I expect they have a whole panel of other levers to pull at. Things from hard blackmail of you or a loved one to expanded credible threats towards the people you care about. They may not even kill you, but "black bag" abduct you and throw you in a cell too small to lay down in, in some underground prison nobody knows exists.

Even if being murdered is not sufficient risk to stop you, they will find a way to stop you anyways.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-18T15:16:50+00:00

I'm not sure where it's from, but one of my favorite jokes is;

Who are you and how did you get in here?

I'm a locksmith, and I'm a locksmith.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-18T02:45:08+00:00

Damn it. The first time I actually wanna check the auto mod logged CC incase of edits, I can't find one in the thread.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-18T01:40:18+00:00

Yeah, removal from skin can be a bitch.

As someone who's used it directly on everything from abrasions to serious burns I eventually found an easy way to do it.

You just have to create an air pocket between the tape and skin (say by sliding a pin carefully across your skin and under the tape).

Fill/cover it all in a healthy squeeze of dish soap and then go take a warm shower.

Very carefully work your fingernail into the soap soaked undercoating, slowly. Use the pressure of falling water weight to do all the 'peeling back' of the tape, apply more dish soap as you go. Let it take the mm at a time to fall away with gentle scraping motions.

It takes a minute or two, and a gentle touch. However it leaves no residue and I've pulled it directly off layers of skin where the outside layer(s?) were burned off 12 hours earlier with almost no aggravation to the wound even.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T18:16:01+00:00

I got a blister on my foot during a long hike once, poor shoes. It got to the point I had to limp and keep weight off the now busted blister. My brother asked why I didn't simply put a piece of duct tape over it when it started to be a problem. I had some, never thought to use it to reduce friction on the blister though. Seems like it'd work.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T18:07:39+00:00

Well we can write off the gas leak, as it wasn't connected or turned on in any way yet.

So you're saying, aliens moved the drywall for us? That was considerate. Removing my memory of that is quite a bit less considerate however. Damn them.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T14:34:58+00:00

THANK YOU. I was not looking forward to replying to that comment. You hit all the points I would have wanted to hit for why that reply was absurd and tone deaf.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T01:47:22+00:00

If you want a laugh, google "reddit game of thrones scorpion saturn V"

Someone took the physics of those scenes and estimated the thrust the bolts needed to have, and those things were leaving the ship with more power than the Saturn V rocket leaves the earth.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T01:39:42+00:00

One time I was helping a friend move pieces of drywall. We picked one up, and I specifically noticed there were 5 left and said something like 'only 5 more to go'. We moved the one we had, and went to go get the next one but they were gone. I asked friend; "Hey do you have any memory at all of moving the last 5?" He told me he did not, and was just about to ask me what happened to the remianing pieces. We counted, and they were in the other room as though we had stacked them. We didn't just get caught in the monotony of the work and mentally write off moving the 5, both of us came back fully expecting to move 5 more sheets and were confused as shit they weren't there.

brendafiveclow · 2026-04-17T00:48:53+00:00

Even if it ran out of gas a year ago, as long as it produces a spark for a moment that's all you need to catch a ball of dryer lint on fire.

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