This problem is fundamentally equivalent to time travel
I agree that if you solve time travel you can also solve death, but the other implication does not hold. A possible way for Harry to “resurrect” Hermione is to scan her brain, run it through an error-correcting algorithm (to reduce/remove errors introduced from decay and it being transfigured) and then “print out” a brain that is arbitrarily similar to Hermione’s brain at the moment of her death. This will of course depend on the amount of computing power available to Harry, but since he is already “destined” to tear apart the stars, that will probably not be a problem. It’ll also require some “minor” scientific breakthroughs.
Now, I am not at all saying that this is Harry’s plan to resurrect her (In fact I suspect his plan to be very different from this), I am merely providing an example for how you can “restore” someone who is dead without being capable of time travel.
By definition, however, an information-theoretic death means that such an error-correction scheme would be impossible; such a machine would require knowledge that, by the Uncertainty Principle, cannot be attained.
Thus, if you did have that capability regardless, it could then be used to rewind an arbitrary section of the universe to an arbitrary time, which is equivalent to time travel.
By definition, however, an information-theoretic death means that such an error-correction scheme would be impossible; such a machine would require knowledge that, by the Uncertainty Principle, cannot be attained.
Ok, now we’re just talking past each other. Just googled the term “information-theoretic death” and got the following definition from wikipedia:
Information-theoretic death is the destruction of the information within a human brain (or any cognitive structure capable of constituting a person) to such an extent that recovery of the original person is theoretically impossible by any physical means.
This is obviously the situation that Harry has to avoid. If his plan was:
Allow Hermione’s brain to decay so much that it becomes theoretically impossible to restore it.
Well, that would depend entirely on whether or not time travel beyond 6 hours into the past is possible. So, in other words, it’s time travel arbitrarily far back in time that would make this term nonsensical.
I agree that if you solve time travel you can also solve death, but the other implication does not hold. A possible way for Harry to “resurrect” Hermione is to scan her brain, run it through an error-correcting algorithm (to reduce/remove errors introduced from decay and it being transfigured) and then “print out” a brain that is arbitrarily similar to Hermione’s brain at the moment of her death. This will of course depend on the amount of computing power available to Harry, but since he is already “destined” to tear apart the stars, that will probably not be a problem. It’ll also require some “minor” scientific breakthroughs.
Now, I am not at all saying that this is Harry’s plan to resurrect her (In fact I suspect his plan to be very different from this), I am merely providing an example for how you can “restore” someone who is dead without being capable of time travel.
By definition, however, an information-theoretic death means that such an error-correction scheme would be impossible; such a machine would require knowledge that, by the Uncertainty Principle, cannot be attained.
Thus, if you did have that capability regardless, it could then be used to rewind an arbitrary section of the universe to an arbitrary time, which is equivalent to time travel.
Ok, now we’re just talking past each other. Just googled the term “information-theoretic death” and got the following definition from wikipedia:
This is obviously the situation that Harry has to avoid. If his plan was:
Allow Hermione’s brain to decay so much that it becomes theoretically impossible to restore it.
Do something theoretically impossible.
Then his plan is just wrong.
Information-theoretic death implies the absence of time travel.
With time travel, the concept is nonsensical.
Well, that would depend entirely on whether or not time travel beyond 6 hours into the past is possible. So, in other words, it’s time travel arbitrarily far back in time that would make this term nonsensical.