Friendship is Optimal has launched and is being published in chunks on FIMFiction.
Friendship is Optimal is a story about an optimizer written to "satisfy human values through friendship and ponies." I would like to thank everyone on LessWrong who came out and helped edit it. Friendship is Optimal wouldn't be what is today without your help.
Thank you.
Teaser description:
Hanna, the CEO of Hofvarpnir Studios, just won the contract to write the official My Little Pony MMO. Hanna has built an A.I. Princess Celestia and given her one basic drive: to satisfy everybody's values through friendship and ponies. And Princess Celestia will follow those instructions to the letter...even if you don't want her to.
Here is the schedule for the next chapters:
Friday (Nov. 16th): Chapter 4 - 5
Monday (Nov. 19th): Chapter 6 - 7
Thursday (Nov. 22th): Chapter 8 - 9
Sunday (Nov. 25th): Chapter 10 - 11, Author's Afterword
I respectfully request an explanation of the merits of publishing like this when you have the entire fic written already.
Three reasons:
... (read more)Most people who read the beta version know why I specifically want chapter 4 to be released on a Friday. It was serendipitous and unplanned when I released the beta on a Friday evening, and I'm trying to recapture that in the real release. Making sure this happened was a design goal of my schedule.
My second roomate tried to read the entire thing in one sitting, and complained that once things got heavy and philosophical, he felt a bit overwhelmed. I want people to have some time to mull things over and think "what would I do in that