Gondolinian comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, February 2015, chapter 113 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Gondolinian 28 February 2015 08:23PM

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Comment author: dxu 28 February 2015 11:31:32PM *  3 points [-]

thin slice of thread of air

It has been established that air can't be Transfigured due to the constant motion of its particles; they don't hold still long enough for you to Transfigure them.

Comment author: Gondolinian 01 March 2015 12:32:14AM 2 points [-]

It has been established that air can't be Transfigured due to the constant motion of its particles; they don't hold still long enough for you to Transfigure them.

Is there an easy-to-link-to source for this? Not that I don't believe you, I just want to make sure there aren't any non-obvious or obvious-in-hindsight alternative interpretations.

Comment author: Astazha 01 March 2015 02:12:02AM 6 points [-]

Ch. 28:

Harry's knuckles had gone white on his wand by the time he stopped trying to Transfigure the air in front of his wand into a paperclip. It wouldn't have been safe to Transfigure the paperclip into gas, of course, but Harry didn't see any reason why it would be unsafe the other way around. It just wasn't supposed to be possible. But why not? Air was as real a substance as anything else...

Well, maybe that limitation did make sense. Air was disorganized, all the molecules constantly changing their relation to each other. Maybe you couldn't impose a new form on substance unless the substance was staying still long enough for you to master it, even though the atoms in solids were also constantly vibrating all the time...

This isn't conclusive, though. That failed attempt is before he sorts out partial transfiguration. However:

Harry may only use capabilities the story has already mentioned; he cannot develop wordless wandless Legilimency in the next 60 seconds. Of course, Harry may find more clever ways to use abilities he has already been established to have.

It would need to be fairly clear, I think, that Harry was re-purposing an old technique and not doing something new.

Comment author: Articulator 01 March 2015 07:37:33AM *  2 points [-]

The first rule of Transfiguration: you do not guess.

Harry proposed a hypothesis, but no further testing was committed. Without knowledge of PT, I'd rate the inability to transfigure all air (as a conceptually-singular entity) as an equally (or more) probable explanation.

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