Any reason(s) in particular that you’re certain that Horcrux-creation would have detrimental effects significant enough that Voldemort would create only one, maximum? I assume it must have some detrimental effects, because otherwise, given a Rational Dark Lord armed with a time-turner, we’d be looking at Horcruxes proliferating as fast as he can make them. Tens or hundreds or thousands of horcruxes, one on every muggle device launched into or out of orbit, if he could manage it.
I notice that you seem to take for granted the existence of “souls” in MoR, which is far from certain. Actually I would rate the possibility as decidedly uncertain, since if souls and their attendant afterlife existed, it’d put quite a dent in the entire motivation for Harry’s “conquer death and achieve immortality for everyone” program. And as prasannak noted, Harry has raised the alternate hypothesis that horcrux creation is less soul-fragmentation and more mind-uploading: “Maybe he found some way of duplicating the power of the Resurrection Stone, only he loaded it in advance with a complete copy of
his brain state. Or something like that.” (Chapter 39)
edit:
And I just remembered a brief exchange between Quirrell and Harry in chapter 46, which (to me, at least) hints at the existence of more than one horcrux. Quirrell asks Harry, hypothetically speaking, where he would choose to “lose something where no one would ever find it again.” (I assumed he was being all ironic again and was talking about horcruxes.) Harry reeled off a list of about 5 possible hiding places, to which Quirrell responds “All excellent suggestions… But tell me, Mr. Potter, why those exact five? …There is an interesting pattern to them.… One might say it sounds like something of a riddle.” (Riddle? Irony overload.)
It just dawned on me that those 5 hiding places could only be clues to a riddle (the riddle of where Voldemort chose to hide all his horcruxes) if they didn’t encompass the complete set of all horcrux hiding places, meaning that there are probably more than 5. Additionally, those 5 hiding places would only be good “clues” if they were themselves correct hiding places, from which further hiding places could be extrapolated based on some sort of shared similarity.
V jnf haqre gur vzcerffvba gung rirelguvat nobhg fbhyf naq gur nsgreyvsr sebz pnaba ubyqf gehr va ZbE. Ryvrmre fgngrq gung Uneel svaqf uvzfrys va n havirefr jvgu na nsgreyvsr juvyr abg oryvrivat va na nsgreyvsr, ohg guvf vf abg n synj va uvf engvbanyvgl orpnhfr Ebjyvat jebgr ab npghny rivqrapr bs gurfr guvatf vagb ure havirefr.
Do you mean Eliezer said that in an author’s comment or something? If so I concede the point, though the text of MoR doesn’t appear to me to support the existence of either souls or afterlife (even ghosts are less sapient than they are in canon).
I’m also doubtful about it from a story-telling standpoint, since if spiritual immortality for humans exists by default, it would make all of Harry’s stated ambitions to achieve transhuman immortality in the material universe, for everyone, a bit pointless and perhaps even restrictive (that’s a whole new world you never get to explore, if you never die). Also, since MoR has a certain didactic function, for Eliezer to establish spiritual immortality in the Rationality!verse would kind of take away from the impact of his anti-death and pro-cryonics sentiments.
As regards your comment about Rowling, I think in canon there’s at least one piece of evidence strongly supporting the existence of an afterlife. In Deathly Hallows, during the “King’s Cross” scene when Harry is AK’d into Limbo by Voldemort, Harry ostensibly meets the departed soul of Dumbledore, who tells him all manner of things (regarding his own past and the Deathly Hallows) that only the true Dumbledore would know. If one is particularly skeptical, one can write this off as total delusion on Harry’s part (thus rendering suspect everything “Dumbledore” tells him), but that would go completely against the spirit of the story.
I see, thanks for the link. Honestly though, va gung abgr Ryvrmre frrzf gb pbzr evtug bhg naq fnl gung va ZbE gurer vf ab nsgreyvsr: “Pu. 39 vf nyfb gur ynetrfg punatr V arrqrq gb znxr gb Ebjyvat’f ynjf bs zntvp, rzcunfvf ba arrqrq—bgurejvfr, lbh creprvir, punenpgre zbgvingvba tbrf bhg gur jvaqbj.” Ol punenpgre zbgvingvbaf V vzntvar ur jnf guvaxvat bs gur fnzr pbapreaf V zragvbarq jura V gnyxrq nobhg gur “fgbel-gryyvat fgnaqcbvag” nobir.
if souls and their attendant afterlife existed, it’d put quite a dent in the entire motivation for Harry’s “conquer death and achieve immortality for everyone” program.
Yeah, I worded that poorly. It wouldn’t put a dent in his underlying motivations (he would still love life, and no doubt be relieved at the news that the dead aren’t lost forever), but it would make his current ambitions to optimize this world a bit beside the point, if he also needs to concentrate on optimizing the next one.
Any reason(s) in particular that you’re certain that Horcrux-creation would have detrimental effects significant enough that Voldemort would create only one, maximum? I assume it must have some detrimental effects, because otherwise, given a Rational Dark Lord armed with a time-turner, we’d be looking at Horcruxes proliferating as fast as he can make them. Tens or hundreds or thousands of horcruxes, one on every muggle device launched into or out of orbit, if he could manage it.
I notice that you seem to take for granted the existence of “souls” in MoR, which is far from certain. Actually I would rate the possibility as decidedly uncertain, since if souls and their attendant afterlife existed, it’d put quite a dent in the entire motivation for Harry’s “conquer death and achieve immortality for everyone” program. And as prasannak noted, Harry has raised the alternate hypothesis that horcrux creation is less soul-fragmentation and more mind-uploading: “Maybe he found some way of duplicating the power of the Resurrection Stone, only he loaded it in advance with a complete copy of his brain state. Or something like that.” (Chapter 39)
edit:
And I just remembered a brief exchange between Quirrell and Harry in chapter 46, which (to me, at least) hints at the existence of more than one horcrux. Quirrell asks Harry, hypothetically speaking, where he would choose to “lose something where no one would ever find it again.” (I assumed he was being all ironic again and was talking about horcruxes.) Harry reeled off a list of about 5 possible hiding places, to which Quirrell responds “All excellent suggestions… But tell me, Mr. Potter, why those exact five? …There is an interesting pattern to them.… One might say it sounds like something of a riddle.” (Riddle? Irony overload.)
It just dawned on me that those 5 hiding places could only be clues to a riddle (the riddle of where Voldemort chose to hide all his horcruxes) if they didn’t encompass the complete set of all horcrux hiding places, meaning that there are probably more than 5. Additionally, those 5 hiding places would only be good “clues” if they were themselves correct hiding places, from which further hiding places could be extrapolated based on some sort of shared similarity.
V jnf haqre gur vzcerffvba gung rirelguvat nobhg fbhyf naq gur nsgreyvsr sebz pnaba ubyqf gehr va ZbE. Ryvrmre fgngrq gung Uneel svaqf uvzfrys va n havirefr jvgu na nsgreyvsr juvyr abg oryvrivat va na nsgreyvsr, ohg guvf vf abg n synj va uvf engvbanyvgl orpnhfr Ebjyvat jebgr ab npghny rivqrapr bs gurfr guvatf vagb ure havirefr.
Do you mean Eliezer said that in an author’s comment or something? If so I concede the point, though the text of MoR doesn’t appear to me to support the existence of either souls or afterlife (even ghosts are less sapient than they are in canon).
I’m also doubtful about it from a story-telling standpoint, since if spiritual immortality for humans exists by default, it would make all of Harry’s stated ambitions to achieve transhuman immortality in the material universe, for everyone, a bit pointless and perhaps even restrictive (that’s a whole new world you never get to explore, if you never die). Also, since MoR has a certain didactic function, for Eliezer to establish spiritual immortality in the Rationality!verse would kind of take away from the impact of his anti-death and pro-cryonics sentiments.
As regards your comment about Rowling, I think in canon there’s at least one piece of evidence strongly supporting the existence of an afterlife. In Deathly Hallows, during the “King’s Cross” scene when Harry is AK’d into Limbo by Voldemort, Harry ostensibly meets the departed soul of Dumbledore, who tells him all manner of things (regarding his own past and the Deathly Hallows) that only the true Dumbledore would know. If one is particularly skeptical, one can write this off as total delusion on Harry’s part (thus rendering suspect everything “Dumbledore” tells him), but that would go completely against the spirit of the story.
V oryvrir ur zrnaf rivqrapr gung pna or bognvarq ol aba-qrnq crbcyr. Urer’f gur yvax.
I see, thanks for the link. Honestly though, va gung abgr Ryvrmre frrzf gb pbzr evtug bhg naq fnl gung va ZbE gurer vf ab nsgreyvsr: “Pu. 39 vf nyfb gur ynetrfg punatr V arrqrq gb znxr gb Ebjyvat’f ynjf bs zntvp, rzcunfvf ba arrqrq—bgurejvfr, lbh creprvir, punenpgre zbgvingvba tbrf bhg gur jvaqbj.” Ol punenpgre zbgvingvbaf V vzntvar ur jnf guvaxvat bs gur fnzr pbapreaf V zragvbarq jura V gnyxrq nobhg gur “fgbel-gryyvat fgnaqcbvag” nobir.
V guvax lbh znl or pbeerpg ba obgu cbvagf, npghnyyl. V’yy tb onpx naq rqvg zl cbfgf, V thrff.
Oh, quite the opposite!
Yeah, I worded that poorly. It wouldn’t put a dent in his underlying motivations (he would still love life, and no doubt be relieved at the news that the dead aren’t lost forever), but it would make his current ambitions to optimize this world a bit beside the point, if he also needs to concentrate on optimizing the next one.
Or did you mean something else?