Harry has already upgraded two existing spells: partial transfiguration and Patronus 2.0
In both cases, he achieved the impossible by ignoring what wizards believe and instead concentrating on his own beliefs.
What does Harry believe about Hermione that other wizards do not? He believes she is a purely biological machine, that there are no souls, and that a reductionist viewpoint is correct.
Therefore, in the right frame of mind, perhaps Harry can reparo a dead human (although canon!reparo cannot repair magical items properly, I wonder if it might restore Hermione without her magic, and if she might just be just as awesome without it.)
Why the magical dualism? Since the magic ability has been confirmed genetic and not external in the earlier testing with Draco, a “repaired” wizard will remain a wizard.
There’s a genetic marker that the Source of Magic recognizes. The gene is still there, but the magic may not be. What wizards believe to be the soul leaving might be the Source of Magic withdrawing its power.
Because a stateless system is always simpler than a stateful one.
If it assigns magical ability to living brains with wizard genes, that is strictly lower Kolmogorov-complexityi than identifying a wizard at birth, tagging them and then withdrawing power when they ‘die’.
(Stateless means no hidden variables; everything can be decided locally.)
Examples of powerful stateless systems: The basic logic gates, the Link Layer of the Internet (barring traffic control utilities), Lambda Calculus, and others.
You seem to confirm my point. It’s a basic logic gate: (wizard genes & alive) = magical ability. remembering that the person was once dead is an extra complication.
According to Quirrel (this might not actually be accurate) troll regeneration works by constantly transmuting itself into its own body. I wonder if that can be applied to a human…
Harry would have to maintain the transfiguration for the rest of Hermione’s life, or until they find a replacement solution. Given the extent of the injuries that may not be within his strength.
First, I’m not sure how much learning precisely you were expecting from the troll in this limited period of time, most of which was taken up by it feeling fly-bites and smacking around the flies, nor even how you would expect for such to be seen.
Secondly, it did seem to learn. George hit it with three Ventus spells, each one moving it further towards the edge of the terrace. Between the second and the third, the troll dug its hand into the stone, anchoring it in place so that it would not be blown over the edge. If that’s not adapting to match a new threat, I’m not sure what would be—certainly not in the brief time of the fight where most of the attacks were on the level of fly-bites.
If that is not displaying a learning ability, I would like to hear an example of a learning ability that it could have displayed.
I… think that the effects there would actually be much worse: The troll would be basically stateless. It’s not even clear how that sort of thing would avoid disrupting the transfig. process.
Perhaps it’s somewhat more advanced, like the charms that McGonagall was mentioning.
This is if the spell made logical sense when carried out to the fullest. But, magic doesn’t work like that, it works the way we would naively think if we said “transforming back into itself.”
According to Quirrel (this might not actually be accurate) troll regeneration works by constantly transmuting itself into its own body. I wonder if that can be applied to a human...
Given that human exert sweat I doubt that doing transmution directly on humans is a good idea.
Ideas about what Hermione without magic would do? Presumably some sort of research with occasional overwhelming research-based action, but science? magic? some combination?
ill go further. This could be the philosophers stone. It is not a physical object, it is a 600 year old scrap of parchment that explains this. Flamel routinely obliviates this idea from his head after repairing his body back to optimum operating condition because allowing any first year student to live forever and to /raise the dead/ is an insight that seems obviously catastropic to someone raised before modern agriculture and contraceptives.
Repairo works on anything still recognizably a certain kind of object? This would let you restore anyone who has any remains left at all..
This raises the question of how Flamel is so sure Voldemort couldn’t replicate the Stone though. If he doesn’t know what it is, he’s in no position to make such a claim at all, and if that were what it was and he knew it, this should be just the sort of thing that anyone familiar with Voldemort should expect him to think of.
He is in fact not sure of this at all. The entire point of maintaining the illusion that there is a magical macguffin is to keep people like voldemort from speculating about how he maintains his youth. As long as the world is barking up the alchemy tree…
Both of those cases depended on a crucial insight rather than knowledge (Dementors represent death rather than fear, the boundaries of objects are arbitrary) I’m not sure if knowledge of physicalism is analogous.
Harry has already upgraded two existing spells: partial transfiguration and Patronus 2.0
In both cases, he achieved the impossible by ignoring what wizards believe and instead concentrating on his own beliefs.
What does Harry believe about Hermione that other wizards do not? He believes she is a purely biological machine, that there are no souls, and that a reductionist viewpoint is correct.
Therefore, in the right frame of mind, perhaps Harry can reparo a dead human (although canon!reparo cannot repair magical items properly, I wonder if it might restore Hermione without her magic, and if she might just be just as awesome without it.)
Why the magical dualism? Since the magic ability has been confirmed genetic and not external in the earlier testing with Draco, a “repaired” wizard will remain a wizard.
There’s a genetic marker that the Source of Magic recognizes. The gene is still there, but the magic may not be. What wizards believe to be the soul leaving might be the Source of Magic withdrawing its power.
Sure, that makes sense. But why would it not come back once the person is alive again?
Because a stateless system is always simpler than a stateful one.
If it assigns magical ability to living brains with wizard genes, that is strictly lower Kolmogorov-complexityi than identifying a wizard at birth, tagging them and then withdrawing power when they ‘die’.
(Stateless means no hidden variables; everything can be decided locally.)
Examples of powerful stateless systems: The basic logic gates, the Link Layer of the Internet (barring traffic control utilities), Lambda Calculus, and others.
You seem to confirm my point. It’s a basic logic gate: (wizard genes & alive) = magical ability. remembering that the person was once dead is an extra complication.
According to Quirrel (this might not actually be accurate) troll regeneration works by constantly transmuting itself into its own body. I wonder if that can be applied to a human…
Harry would have to maintain the transfiguration for the rest of Hermione’s life, or until they find a replacement solution. Given the extent of the injuries that may not be within his strength.
It does sound like exactly the kind of clever hack Harry would use to get an indefinite healthy lifespan, though.
Hermione would probably maintain it. Or maybe someone else. Harry should probably be doing this to himself, too.
But memories, like wounds, would be constantly overwritten. This troll, while quite competent in many ways, never displayed learning ability.
Somehow I don’t think a human unable to learn would be what Harry would consider a valuable result.
First, I’m not sure how much learning precisely you were expecting from the troll in this limited period of time, most of which was taken up by it feeling fly-bites and smacking around the flies, nor even how you would expect for such to be seen.
Secondly, it did seem to learn. George hit it with three Ventus spells, each one moving it further towards the edge of the terrace. Between the second and the third, the troll dug its hand into the stone, anchoring it in place so that it would not be blown over the edge. If that’s not adapting to match a new threat, I’m not sure what would be—certainly not in the brief time of the fight where most of the attacks were on the level of fly-bites.
If that is not displaying a learning ability, I would like to hear an example of a learning ability that it could have displayed.
I… think that the effects there would actually be much worse: The troll would be basically stateless. It’s not even clear how that sort of thing would avoid disrupting the transfig. process.
Perhaps it’s somewhat more advanced, like the charms that McGonagall was mentioning.
This is if the spell made logical sense when carried out to the fullest. But, magic doesn’t work like that, it works the way we would naively think if we said “transforming back into itself.”
Given that human exert sweat I doubt that doing transmution directly on humans is a good idea.
… It strikes me that Harry’s wand could not be affected by a normal reparo, up until someone threw the Elder Wand itself at it...
Ideas about what Hermione without magic would do? Presumably some sort of research with occasional overwhelming research-based action, but science? magic? some combination?
Possibly she would get outfitted with a truly ridiculous array of magic items?
Become a dentist?
… This is perfect.
ill go further. This could be the philosophers stone. It is not a physical object, it is a 600 year old scrap of parchment that explains this. Flamel routinely obliviates this idea from his head after repairing his body back to optimum operating condition because allowing any first year student to live forever and to /raise the dead/ is an insight that seems obviously catastropic to someone raised before modern agriculture and contraceptives.
Repairo works on anything still recognizably a certain kind of object? This would let you restore anyone who has any remains left at all..
This raises the question of how Flamel is so sure Voldemort couldn’t replicate the Stone though. If he doesn’t know what it is, he’s in no position to make such a claim at all, and if that were what it was and he knew it, this should be just the sort of thing that anyone familiar with Voldemort should expect him to think of.
He is in fact not sure of this at all. The entire point of maintaining the illusion that there is a magical macguffin is to keep people like voldemort from speculating about how he maintains his youth. As long as the world is barking up the alchemy tree…
Both of those cases depended on a crucial insight rather than knowledge (Dementors represent death rather than fear, the boundaries of objects are arbitrary) I’m not sure if knowledge of physicalism is analogous.
So much win.