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dclayh comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 2 - Less Wrong
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Just occurred to me: if magic ability is genetic, it should in theory be possible to use gene therapy/retroviruses/etc. (and perhaps some magic) to make all the Muggles into wizards! (Or at least all the ones yet to be conceived or something.) I can just imagine Harry creating a Plague of Magic.
Almost certainly not in the timeframe of the fic. I think that 1995 was about the first time we successfully used a retrovirus to cure a human disease, and we still don't have the tech to create a contagious disease to do so.
Oh, good point. I always forget that HP isn't technically in the present day.
He could easily overwhelm any wizarding army/faction by raising an army of magically enabled Muggles, once he can access the technology. Since there are only tens of thousands of magical people in Britain, just converting 500 muggles to wizards would make Harry the dominant force in the magical world.
That's an interesting move, though it leaves out the organizational challenge and the amount of time needed for training.
And it seems unlikely that such a force could be kept secret from the wizarding world....
It's true that it would take many years, but the payoff would be huge. It seems all but inevitable that someone smart (i.e. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Dumbledore, or Quirrelmort) will do it eventually.
The payoff would be.... ill-defined.
How sure are you that you can retain control? That one of your more ambitious and inventive upgraded muggles won't try setting up on their own? That one of them won't get hold of your give-wizardry magic and share the wealth?
When you see "So You Want to Be a Wizard" on WikiLeaks, it's too late.
You could make taking your Mark a price of being given magic.
I don't think he likes chaos quite that much.
Good idea. For some reason I immediately thought about Muggles exterminating wizards with a gene-engineered disease.
No! It was pointed out how a wizard has to study hard before doing magic. So magic enabled Muggles would be rather useless or dangerous. No way to raise an army. (Also he would have to be accepted as the leader of an Muggle group)
More interesting is the opposite way, of removing the magic gene or disabling it. A vaccine against magic.