“There iss already in motion a power which will desstroy world if left unchecked. [entropy] If you kill me, trap me, incapacitate me, or otherwisse hinder me, I will be unable to take necesssary possitive actionss to try to sstop it and ssave world. Am sstill bound by vowss, will not take any action I think will make desstruction worsse or more likely.”
At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed. Moreover, if Voldemort discovers that Harry is trying to use tricky wording against him, he’ll likely conclude (correctly) that Harry is not at all interested in being cooperative, and then kill him.
The problem as I see is this: Voldemort is smart. Furthermore, he thinks like Harry, meaning that Harry’s plans will be especially easy for him to see through. Any sort of successful verbal trickery would by necessity have to be something that Voldemort can’t decode easily, which, given the constraints, seems to imply that the solution should involve domain-specific knowledge more than general intelligence, which in turn screams “Muggle knowledge!” to me. One example of this is the material implication trick I suggested (which I know you’ve already seen; I added the link there for other possible readers). Can anyone think of any other such tricks?
At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed.
Why? Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen? We could change the framing so it’s more of an explanation of entropy and heat death than an apparent trick (As I think some on Reddit have already done.), but I think this has a fair bit of potential at least as a tactic for buying time to partially transfigure something or for gaining access to Hermione if not for outright persuading Voldemort to let Harry out of the box.
Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen?
Heat death is a long ways off, and in the long run, it’s extremely unlikely that Harry is unique enough to play a crucial role in stopping it. Heck, Voldemort himself could read up on all the science Harry currently knows, a task that would take him at most eleven years, mostly like less (after all, Harry did it, and at a much younger age, too), and be at least every bit as well-suited as Harry is right now at stopping heat death, and probably much more well-suited seeing as he knows more magic. (Plus, eleven years on a cosmic scale is less than the blink of an eye.) I don’t think Voldemort would consider the (very probably minimal) value Harry has to offer in preventing the heat death of the universe enough positive utility to outweigh the fact that a prophecy said he would tear apart the very stars in heaven.
That is not to say, however, that this entire line of thought doesn’t work. If Harry has something to offer Voldemort that he would actually value highly enough to consider letting him live, then we’re in business. Off the top of my head I’m not thinking of anything, but it’s a definite possibility. (Intelligence enhancement, perhaps?) Still, I don’t think the “help stop heat death” offer is going to be the winning method.
My final solution, already submitted as a review to fanfiction.net:
My three ideas for persuading Voldemort to let Harry out of the box, or at least for buying Harry enough time to escape by other means, using all true statements in pseudo-Parseltongue:
1:
Harry: “There iss already in motion a power which will desstroy the world if it iss not sstopped. [entropy/heat death] Even if you kill me now, or try to limit my influence on the world, the world will sstill be desstroyed by thiss force.
I am sstill bound by the vowss I have jusst sworn to you, and I will not act in any way I believe will causse a greater desstruction, or a higher chance of desstruction. I alsso genuinely intend to sstop the desstruction of the world, and I genuinely believe I can accomplissh thiss [given enough time and resources], if you let me.”
2:
Harry: “I am nearly certain that the prophecy you are trying to avert *will* be fulfilled, in one way or another. I have genuine reasson [Comed-Tea experiments; can explain if Voldemort asks] to believe that magic hass accesss to the whole of time, and already knowss how the future will unfold. If I am correct in believing thiss, there iss no way you could sstop the fulfillment of the prophecy, but your actionss now may be able to influence *how* it will be fulfilled.
While I cannot be ssure without knowing the true wording of the prophecy, there are likely many outcomess which would fulfill the literal requirementss of the prophecy while leaving the world in a sstate that you, I, and the girl-child could all agree iss not ssignificantly worsse than and perhapss even better than itss current sstate. If you kill me, or try to limit my influence on the world, you will esssentially be leaving how the prophecy will be fulfilled up to chance, but if you let me work with you, we can greatly increasse the chancess of a possitive fulfillment. I have already been bound by your vowss, and I tell you all thiss in good faith, without any intent to trick you.”
3: [uses material implication to mislead as suggested by dxu on LessWrong]
Harry: “If you or your minionss kill me or girl-child, harm uss, resstrain uss, incapacitate uss, blackmail uss, or otherwisse annoy uss anymore than you already have, the world will be desstroyed. [by eventual heat death, which it would have been anyway] You will command your minionss to sstand down, you will awaken girl-child and let her walk to me unhindered, you will lay my unaltered posssessionss at my feet, you and your minionss will leave thiss place without caussing harm to me or girl-child or arranging for harm to come to uss after you have left. If you do not do ass I have told you, the world will end.”
Another possible solution path:
“There iss already in motion a power which will desstroy world if left unchecked. [entropy] If you kill me, trap me, incapacitate me, or otherwisse hinder me, I will be unable to take necesssary possitive actionss to try to sstop it and ssave world. Am sstill bound by vowss, will not take any action I think will make desstruction worsse or more likely.”
At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed. Moreover, if Voldemort discovers that Harry is trying to use tricky wording against him, he’ll likely conclude (correctly) that Harry is not at all interested in being cooperative, and then kill him.
The problem as I see is this: Voldemort is smart. Furthermore, he thinks like Harry, meaning that Harry’s plans will be especially easy for him to see through. Any sort of successful verbal trickery would by necessity have to be something that Voldemort can’t decode easily, which, given the constraints, seems to imply that the solution should involve domain-specific knowledge more than general intelligence, which in turn screams “Muggle knowledge!” to me. One example of this is the material implication trick I suggested (which I know you’ve already seen; I added the link there for other possible readers). Can anyone think of any other such tricks?
Why? Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen? We could change the framing so it’s more of an explanation of entropy and heat death than an apparent trick (As I think some on Reddit have already done.), but I think this has a fair bit of potential at least as a tactic for buying time to partially transfigure something or for gaining access to Hermione if not for outright persuading Voldemort to let Harry out of the box.
Heat death is a long ways off, and in the long run, it’s extremely unlikely that Harry is unique enough to play a crucial role in stopping it. Heck, Voldemort himself could read up on all the science Harry currently knows, a task that would take him at most eleven years, mostly like less (after all, Harry did it, and at a much younger age, too), and be at least every bit as well-suited as Harry is right now at stopping heat death, and probably much more well-suited seeing as he knows more magic. (Plus, eleven years on a cosmic scale is less than the blink of an eye.) I don’t think Voldemort would consider the (very probably minimal) value Harry has to offer in preventing the heat death of the universe enough positive utility to outweigh the fact that a prophecy said he would tear apart the very stars in heaven.
That is not to say, however, that this entire line of thought doesn’t work. If Harry has something to offer Voldemort that he would actually value highly enough to consider letting him live, then we’re in business. Off the top of my head I’m not thinking of anything, but it’s a definite possibility. (Intelligence enhancement, perhaps?) Still, I don’t think the “help stop heat death” offer is going to be the winning method.
My final solution, already submitted as a review to fanfiction.net: