The problem is, Dumbledore’s not going to tell Harry what the condition is for getting the stone. Why would he? He didn’t tell canon Quirrell, who was standing there trying to figure out why he couldn’t get it. He didn’t even tell canon Harry until after the fact. The mirror as a screening process works even better if the person being screened doesn’t know what it’s testing for, and thus can’t fake it.
And Harry would want to use the stone, make no mistake. The first thing he’d do with it is make himself immortal, to make sure no accident or fluke could stop him from having time to mass produce the immortality elixir. And he’d be using it for study anyways. But the most important part is that even if he is capable of precommitting and one-boxing, and even if that kind of trick fools the mirror, he’d first need to know that that was the condition necessary to obtain the stone. And you can probably count the number of people Dumbledore trusts with that information on one hand.
But the most important part is that even if he is capable of precommitting and one-boxing, and even if that kind of trick fools the mirror, he’d first need to know that that was the condition necessary to obtain the stone.
Given the author, Harry could also be told after getting the stone that he could only get it if he would not use it, and therefore he would not use it. And he’s already been cautioned against magical paradoxes.
Ok. Valid point. But after trying at a few minutes Harry might be able to understand Dumbledore enough to realize what the trick is. On the other hand, that might take far more empathy for the viewpoints of others than Harry generally has.
This begs the question, if Harry figure out the secret of the mirror, would he be able to construct an Occlumency proxy personality who didn’t want the stone?
Of course there is no answer to this question except “Whatever the author decides.”
The problem with Occlumency proxy personalities is that you have to be very careful, otherwise you’re subject to Amnesiac Dissonance. The smarter the proxy personality, the worse a problem this is.
Loophole: Harry doesn’t want to use the stone, he wants to reverse engineer it, and mass produce more. So he can easily commit to not using the stone.
The problem is, Dumbledore’s not going to tell Harry what the condition is for getting the stone. Why would he? He didn’t tell canon Quirrell, who was standing there trying to figure out why he couldn’t get it. He didn’t even tell canon Harry until after the fact. The mirror as a screening process works even better if the person being screened doesn’t know what it’s testing for, and thus can’t fake it.
And Harry would want to use the stone, make no mistake. The first thing he’d do with it is make himself immortal, to make sure no accident or fluke could stop him from having time to mass produce the immortality elixir. And he’d be using it for study anyways. But the most important part is that even if he is capable of precommitting and one-boxing, and even if that kind of trick fools the mirror, he’d first need to know that that was the condition necessary to obtain the stone. And you can probably count the number of people Dumbledore trusts with that information on one hand.
Given the author, Harry could also be told after getting the stone that he could only get it if he would not use it, and therefore he would not use it. And he’s already been cautioned against magical paradoxes.
Ok. Valid point. But after trying at a few minutes Harry might be able to understand Dumbledore enough to realize what the trick is. On the other hand, that might take far more empathy for the viewpoints of others than Harry generally has.
This begs the question, if Harry figure out the secret of the mirror, would he be able to construct an Occlumency proxy personality who didn’t want the stone?
Of course there is no answer to this question except “Whatever the author decides.”
The problem with Occlumency proxy personalities is that you have to be very careful, otherwise you’re subject to Amnesiac Dissonance. The smarter the proxy personality, the worse a problem this is.