knb comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 2 - Less Wrong

13 Post author: dclayh 01 August 2010 10:58PM

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Comment author: knb 05 August 2010 09:53:02PM 3 points [-]

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.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 06 August 2010 06:31:40AM 2 points [-]

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....

Comment author: knb 06 August 2010 07:35:03AM 1 point [-]

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.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 06 August 2010 07:48:07AM 3 points [-]

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.

Comment author: Larks 07 August 2010 12:22:28AM 2 points [-]

You could make taking your Mark a price of being given magic.