And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, and one making him think that he can think and see better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like have much better fun ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of strangers.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, and one making him think that he can think and see better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, one making him think that he can think better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would trade out-of-preference sexual favors or do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, one making him think that he can think better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would trade out-of-preference sexual-favors or do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, one making him think that he can think better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would trade out-of-preference sexual favors or do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, one making him think that he can think better and promising epiphanies about that, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"

And Keltham-the-object snaps into focus to Keltham-the-perceiver.

His first thought is that Keepers would trade out-of-preference sexual favors or do crimes for this spell.

His second thought is that there's so many thoughts he hasn't been thinking in the last day.

His third thought is that this is a mind-affecting drug, one making him think that he can think better and promising epiphanies, even if the rest of his mental processing isn't degraded.  There are protocols trained for being hit by mind-affecting drugs like that, which you're supposed to follow even if it seems like you have better ideas for things to do while you're on the mind-affecting drug.

It takes an additional effort and self-surety for Keltham to override that very trained and solemnly advised protocol, even temporarily.  But he can see, even more clearly than he could at other times, that it would be stupid to follow standard protocol and run out of this room immediately.  He knows he's more awake right now, and it doesn't matter how many people think they're becoming super awake as they fall asleep and into madness, he can tell the difference.

He still needs to cast his spells and then leave this room of untrusted others.  These are rules that derive strength from their unconditionality; there is some real sense in which even an extremely well-justified exception to them is breaking or bending a piece of the Algorithm that would work better for other people the more unconditional it is, and those people should remember the same thing about that Algorithm.  That's even leaving aside where part of his reason for violating these hard-and-fast rules about behaving under conditions of mental oddity, is that he died in a plane crash and has been in a magical world for the last day, which isn't the sort of epistemic state that - he's wasting time.

"It's up.  Dexterity, Haste?"