You seem to misunderstand how the time-turner works (or at least, how it’s been suggested it works). You don’t get to overwrite anything; the universe doesn’t “end up in” a stable state that results from using it
My interpretation of the “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” incident was that you can try setting things up so that temporal consistency implies the result you want, but actually ruling out every other possibility whatever, including vast classes of outcomes you never even imagined, is next to impossible, at least for an 11-year-old boy, however smart. It hadn’t even occurred to him that there was a problem in his reasoning when he tried the experiment that gave him “the scariest result ever in the history of science”. Temporal consistency in the presence of time loops is another blind idiot god, far more swift and powerful than evolution.
Anyway, he still has the Time-Turner. All that stands between him and it is a magical lock. How difficult can that be for him to get around? No, actually what stands between him and it is the author’s necessity not to unbalance the plot by giving him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Harry’s error in the experiment was responding to “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” with the same. If he didn’t have the property of responding to that message with the same, that message wouldn’t appear.
Actually, this whole consistency-based time travel seems to be an extremely expressive thought experiment infrastructure for thinking about Newcomb-like problems and decision theories able to deal with them. Maybe I should do a top-level post on that (I don’t have a sufficiently clear picture of the setting, so I might be wrong about its potential)… Though I consider that happening unlikely, so other people who understand UDT are welcome to try.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. After getting my head around the implications it seems to be an extremely intuitive way of handling such problems. I didn’t write a post myself since I have yet to look close enough at UDT to be able to explain the difference between UDT and TDT.
My interpretation of the “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” incident was that you can try setting things up so that temporal consistency implies the result you want, but actually ruling out every other possibility whatever, including vast classes of outcomes you never even imagined, is next to impossible, at least for an 11-year-old boy, however smart. It hadn’t even occurred to him that there was a problem in his reasoning when he tried the experiment that gave him “the scariest result ever in the history of science”. Temporal consistency in the presence of time loops is another blind idiot god, far more swift and powerful than evolution.
I think you summed that up perfectly. I would have liked to see a little more of that explanation in the Fan Fic. It would make the story feel more natural and also be a perfect excuse to include the ‘blind idiot god’ kind of message.
Anyway, he still has the Time-Turner. All that stands between him and it is a magical lock. How difficult can that be for him to get around?
Without Hermione backing him up? I think he’d struggle. Harry just isn’t that smart! He really should be spending more time sweet talking her. Well intentioned genius with ambition that doesn’t involve gaining power… just the kind of ally Harry needs.
No, actually what stands between him and it is the author’s necessity not to unbalance the plot by giving him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Uh huh. It’s even worse than if Harry had actually gone and made himself rich on day 1!
My interpretation of the “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” incident was that you can try setting things up so that temporal consistency implies the result you want, but actually ruling out every other possibility whatever, including vast classes of outcomes you never even imagined, is next to impossible, at least for an 11-year-old boy, however smart. It hadn’t even occurred to him that there was a problem in his reasoning when he tried the experiment that gave him “the scariest result ever in the history of science”. Temporal consistency in the presence of time loops is another blind idiot god, far more swift and powerful than evolution.
Anyway, he still has the Time-Turner. All that stands between him and it is a magical lock. How difficult can that be for him to get around? No, actually what stands between him and it is the author’s necessity not to unbalance the plot by giving him a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Harry’s error in the experiment was responding to “DO NOT MESS WITH TIME” with the same. If he didn’t have the property of responding to that message with the same, that message wouldn’t appear.
Actually, this whole consistency-based time travel seems to be an extremely expressive thought experiment infrastructure for thinking about Newcomb-like problems and decision theories able to deal with them. Maybe I should do a top-level post on that (I don’t have a sufficiently clear picture of the setting, so I might be wrong about its potential)… Though I consider that happening unlikely, so other people who understand UDT are welcome to try.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. After getting my head around the implications it seems to be an extremely intuitive way of handling such problems. I didn’t write a post myself since I have yet to look close enough at UDT to be able to explain the difference between UDT and TDT.
I think you summed that up perfectly. I would have liked to see a little more of that explanation in the Fan Fic. It would make the story feel more natural and also be a perfect excuse to include the ‘blind idiot god’ kind of message.
Without Hermione backing him up? I think he’d struggle. Harry just isn’t that smart! He really should be spending more time sweet talking her. Well intentioned genius with ambition that doesn’t involve gaining power… just the kind of ally Harry needs.
Uh huh. It’s even worse than if Harry had actually gone and made himself rich on day 1!
He has been rich since day 1, it just that all his money is tied up in a variety of non-liquid “investments.”
I should say “insanely rich”, not merely ‘well off heir’.