Not if those animals themselves are (note that sentience is not really the relevant quality here, that should actually apply to most animals above a certain level of complexity) also sapient.
Considering that other magical creatures such as centaurs, goblins and house elves are known to be sapient, and animals not normally considered so, such as snakes, may become so due to magic, the prospect is certainly worth considering.
It’s weird that you’re assuming Harry doesn’t know that unicorns aren’t sentient. You don’t know that, but Harry has already researched the known intelligent magical creatures, and he could easily know that unicorns are just magical horses that are pretty.
Harry isn’t even a vegetarian, of course he would be OK with someone killing unicorns to survive.
That’s a good point (that Harry might well already know). Then I blame the author for not telling us; this should have come out in an earlier chapter where Harry was reading about unicorns, just so that the readers don’t end up distracted from the story by a non-issue.
There was a chapter in which Harry does research to determine which animals are known to be intelligent. I don’t remember if unicorns were specifically mentioned, but I think we should assume Harry already knows they are non-sentient by his lack of concern.
(I guess that the new, colder Harry might actually think Quirrell’s life is even more valuable than some number of intelligent unicorns—because Quirrell has a lot of extremely valuable knowledge that Harry believes might save many lives some day. But I really don’t think this is what Eliezer is going for here.)
Harry still hadn’t decided what he was allowed to eat for lunch.
His library research hadn’t turned up any sign of wizards speaking to nonmagical plants. Or any other nonmagical animals besides snakes, although Spell and Speak by Paul Breedlove had recounted the probably-mythical tale of a sorceress called the Lady of Flying Squirrels.
Something else not explained there is the namecheck to Paul Breedlove’s “Speak and Spell”. I suspect the Lady of Flying Squirrels also means something but I don’t know what, although the French version of Speak and Spell was called La Dictée Magique, and one of its modules was Les Animaux Familiers.
Harry has dropped the Batman code. Life is full of trade offs.
Being alive and sentient trumps side effects and consuming animals, magical or otherwise.
Not if those animals themselves are (note that sentience is not really the relevant quality here, that should actually apply to most animals above a certain level of complexity) also sapient.
Considering that other magical creatures such as centaurs, goblins and house elves are known to be sapient, and animals not normally considered so, such as snakes, may become so due to magic, the prospect is certainly worth considering.
It’s weird that you’re assuming Harry doesn’t know that unicorns aren’t sentient. You don’t know that, but Harry has already researched the known intelligent magical creatures, and he could easily know that unicorns are just magical horses that are pretty.
Harry isn’t even a vegetarian, of course he would be OK with someone killing unicorns to survive.
That’s a good point (that Harry might well already know). Then I blame the author for not telling us; this should have come out in an earlier chapter where Harry was reading about unicorns, just so that the readers don’t end up distracted from the story by a non-issue.
There was a chapter in which Harry does research to determine which animals are known to be intelligent. I don’t remember if unicorns were specifically mentioned, but I think we should assume Harry already knows they are non-sentient by his lack of concern.
(I guess that the new, colder Harry might actually think Quirrell’s life is even more valuable than some number of intelligent unicorns—because Quirrell has a lot of extremely valuable knowledge that Harry believes might save many lives some day. But I really don’t think this is what Eliezer is going for here.)
Can anybody find this for me? I’m not having luck.
animal intelligence research site:hpmor.com; first hit: http://hpmor.com/chapter/49which is not explained in the chapter, so one looks back to http://hpmor.com/chapter/48 and http://hpmor.com/chapter/47 for the full context of Harry freaking out about talking to snakes and being carnivorous.
Thanks, I stopped looking too soon!
Something else not explained there is the namecheck to Paul Breedlove’s “Speak and Spell”. I suspect the Lady of Flying Squirrels also means something but I don’t know what, although the French version of Speak and Spell was called La Dictée Magique, and one of its modules was Les Animaux Familiers.
Just Eliezer throwing in more allusions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel_Girl / http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/SquirrelGirl (this was identified in the discussions for those chapters, and Squirrel Girl actually appeared before in the Ultimate Meta Mega Crossover IIRC).