I don’t endorse the future-Harry theory at all, but that said, I do think this would be a principled extrapolation… that is, it wouldn’t come out of nowhere, narratively.
We’ve already seen Harry experiment with time (and be warned not to). And we’ve seen, during Harry’s experiments with transmutation, that previously binding constraints on magic can be overcome by adopting a different model of what the magic is doing (1).
I’m no more an expert on the nature of time than I am on the nature of matter, but on the face of it a constraint like “6h/24h” seems as arbitrary as “whole objects only” (2).
So it stands to reason that a similar exercise of using a more accurate model of time could cause that constraint to evaporate (3), allowing Harry to develop an improved Time Turner with no practical upper limit on temporal range.
All of that said, Fermi’s Paradox as applied to time travel is a real problem. OTOH, if we’re willing to believe that “muggles” don’t notice the existence of wizards, I guess it’s not implausible that temporal natives don’t notice the existence of temporal tourists.
(1) One explanation is that by adopting a more accurate model of the manipulation being performed, one can discard constraints that were only ever consequences of the inaccuracies in one’s earlier model. (This seems the most likely explanation, given the author’s philosophical sensibilities.)
(2) Perhaps more, actually. There is a difference between how a cluster of iron atoms interacts with the other iron atoms in a chunk of iron, and how it interacts with the surrounding atmosphere, and that difference could fundamentally affect how transmutation works. It doesn’t in the MORverse, it seems, but it could have. Whereas I can’t think of any meaningful difference between a 6-hour displacement in time (“distimement”?) and a N-hour displacement for any N that is not a significant fraction of the age of the universe.
(3) That said, Harry would be well advised to take far more precautions than are currently available to him before experimenting. It may be that the 6-hour limit is actually a safety factor derived from the maximum distance over which the Turner can adjust the user’s spatial coordinates to keep them on the surface of the Earth, for example.
Then again, the same could be said of experimenting with transmutation… at the very least, understanding where the extra energy goes seems like a good safety precaution.
Then again again, I guess that sort of attitude is why I’m not a protagonist in heroic fiction.
I don’t endorse the future-Harry theory at all, but that said, I do think this would be a principled extrapolation… that is, it wouldn’t come out of nowhere, narratively.
We’ve already seen Harry experiment with time (and be warned not to). And we’ve seen, during Harry’s experiments with transmutation, that previously binding constraints on magic can be overcome by adopting a different model of what the magic is doing (1).
I’m no more an expert on the nature of time than I am on the nature of matter, but on the face of it a constraint like “6h/24h” seems as arbitrary as “whole objects only” (2).
So it stands to reason that a similar exercise of using a more accurate model of time could cause that constraint to evaporate (3), allowing Harry to develop an improved Time Turner with no practical upper limit on temporal range.
All of that said, Fermi’s Paradox as applied to time travel is a real problem. OTOH, if we’re willing to believe that “muggles” don’t notice the existence of wizards, I guess it’s not implausible that temporal natives don’t notice the existence of temporal tourists.
(1) One explanation is that by adopting a more accurate model of the manipulation being performed, one can discard constraints that were only ever consequences of the inaccuracies in one’s earlier model. (This seems the most likely explanation, given the author’s philosophical sensibilities.)
(2) Perhaps more, actually. There is a difference between how a cluster of iron atoms interacts with the other iron atoms in a chunk of iron, and how it interacts with the surrounding atmosphere, and that difference could fundamentally affect how transmutation works. It doesn’t in the MORverse, it seems, but it could have. Whereas I can’t think of any meaningful difference between a 6-hour displacement in time (“distimement”?) and a N-hour displacement for any N that is not a significant fraction of the age of the universe.
(3) That said, Harry would be well advised to take far more precautions than are currently available to him before experimenting. It may be that the 6-hour limit is actually a safety factor derived from the maximum distance over which the Turner can adjust the user’s spatial coordinates to keep them on the surface of the Earth, for example. Then again, the same could be said of experimenting with transmutation… at the very least, understanding where the extra energy goes seems like a good safety precaution. Then again again, I guess that sort of attitude is why I’m not a protagonist in heroic fiction.
And then he could bring some venture capital to save a certain car manufacturer from bankruptcy