That’s a great description, but it’s not from the inside of reality. I mean, if I experience something (such as multiplying two numbers and getting the wrong answer), then it exists, pretty much by definition. (Even if I’m hallucinating, the hallucination exists.) To some extent, this is a matter of semantics, but if my usage of ‘exists’, ‘real’, etc are to match ordinary language, then they have to come out this way. Within the fictional story, I use the viewpoint character instead of myself, so if Harry experiences something (while he’s the viewpoint character), then it’s real within the story.
However, I catch your reference to Greg Egan’s Permutation City. (If you made a reference to anything else, then I missed it.) So there is a flaw in my reasoning here: I’m assuming that everything that we see in MoR is from within a single consistent (albeit fictional) history, just as in the canonical books. But that might not be so! We could be seeing things from within various unstable loops (somewhat as in PC, although there the instability wasn’t a matter of looping), even though the canonical books only showed us stable loops. Since EY (like Egan) accepts the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (even though not of probability), it’s only more likely that he would do something like this. On the other hand, we haven’t so far seen anything that directly suggests this.
I’m assuming that everything that we see in MoR is from within a single consistent (albeit fictional) history
I agree with this assumption: that’s why MoR only shows you the consistent history of the usage of Timeturners. The Timeturner itself is the only point of possible divergence from consistent history (assuming no magic lets us mess with causality, although it seems like Weasley’s “opposite reaction wards” at least have a chance), and EY is writing a story about a rationalist Harry Potter, not a story about wizards using Timeturners, so he won’t bother to show all the inconsistent histories.
And “inconsistent histories” from the perspective of a consistent history is a contradiction in terms; it is no wonder it clashes with the meanings of real, exists, and so forth.
That’s a great description, but it’s not from the inside of reality. I mean, if I experience something (such as multiplying two numbers and getting the wrong answer), then it exists, pretty much by definition. (Even if I’m hallucinating, the hallucination exists.) To some extent, this is a matter of semantics, but if my usage of ‘exists’, ‘real’, etc are to match ordinary language, then they have to come out this way. Within the fictional story, I use the viewpoint character instead of myself, so if Harry experiences something (while he’s the viewpoint character), then it’s real within the story.
However, I catch your reference to Greg Egan’s Permutation City. (If you made a reference to anything else, then I missed it.) So there is a flaw in my reasoning here: I’m assuming that everything that we see in MoR is from within a single consistent (albeit fictional) history, just as in the canonical books. But that might not be so! We could be seeing things from within various unstable loops (somewhat as in PC, although there the instability wasn’t a matter of looping), even though the canonical books only showed us stable loops. Since EY (like Egan) accepts the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (even though not of probability), it’s only more likely that he would do something like this. On the other hand, we haven’t so far seen anything that directly suggests this.
Omake files? :P
I agree with this assumption: that’s why MoR only shows you the consistent history of the usage of Timeturners. The Timeturner itself is the only point of possible divergence from consistent history (assuming no magic lets us mess with causality, although it seems like Weasley’s “opposite reaction wards” at least have a chance), and EY is writing a story about a rationalist Harry Potter, not a story about wizards using Timeturners, so he won’t bother to show all the inconsistent histories.
And “inconsistent histories” from the perspective of a consistent history is a contradiction in terms; it is no wonder it clashes with the meanings of real, exists, and so forth.