Currently 3,004 words into Ch. 99.

I’ll be spending Nov 17-30 at Oxford, but may not have time to meet with anyone while I’m there, barring exceptional circumstances (there will be a decision theory workshop so time is already crowded). Videos of my MIT talk are not yet online.

Though not much is yet written, I quite liked Rationalising Death, an attempt to do a rationalist rewrite of Death Note with, basically, HJPEV playing the role of Light Yagami. It’s actually quite creepy to read this story with a villain protagonist who not only reasons more sympathetically but is literally quoting my own thoughts at some points. Knowing how this happened by way of HPMOR influence doesn’t make it any less creepy… no, actually, I take that back, it would be way creepier if there was no obvious path for the influence.

Worm continues to be awesome (I’m up to Vol. 13). I didn’t even notice until I was halfway through what I’ve already read that all of the characters were using their superpowers intelligently, that none of the supposed geniuses were behaving like idiots, and that the flying bricks who would be the central Powers of other tales were properly taking second place to the real movers and shakers, namely anyone with any sort of informational, cognitive, or probability-based talent. Doing this so smoothly that I don’t even notice because my brain considers the resulting world to be ‘normal’ really ought to deserve some kind of epic bonus points. For many readers, though not all, Worm should be a strong candidate for treating HPMOR withdrawal (the author updates very quickly and regularly).

The next Progress Report will be posted on Dec 1st, 2013 at 5pm Pacific Time.