Have any of you heard of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality? A fic in which Lily Potter makes her normally dowdy sister Petunia hot, enabling Petunia to leave her husband and marry an Oxford Professor. After Lily dies, Petunia then raises Harry alongside her new husband using rationalism and the scientific method….

It focuses heavily on the philosophy of rationalism and the idea that all humans can be made more rational. The fic also tries to impart lessons to teach people to be more rational.

Why does this matter?

Remember the Caroline Ellison, the woman who is the ex-CEO of Alameda Research and was in a romantic relationship with now disgraced Cryptobro and head of FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried.

She had a tumblr account where she posted weird shit about viewing polyamory like a harem in which different members fight to prove their superiority. That account was named after a term in the Methods of Rationality - “world - optimization”

There is evidence to suggest that the fanfic was influential to her worldview or at least in line with her existing world view. Mostly believing that she is the smartest person in any given room because of her rationalism.

So, we could say that Harry Potter fanfiction and its effects on one reader was at least partially responsible for the collapse of a multi-billion dollar crypto exchange