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LucasSloan comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 19, chapter 88-89 - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Vaniver 30 June 2013 01:22AM

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Comment author: LucasSloan 30 June 2013 07:17:57AM 4 points [-]

Well, in the spirit of sticking your neck out:

Harry was sorted into Slytherin.

Dumbledore created Harry to be the ideal literary hero.

Lord Voldemort doesn't want to conquer the world.

Dumbledore is working on way more advance information than everyone else.

Comment author: Pavitra 30 June 2013 10:17:01AM *  11 points [-]

Counter-evidence: Harry produces blue and bronze sparks at Ollivander's.

As long as we're sticking necks out, though:

  • Definitely: The horcrux technology uses the ghost phenomenon. Specifically, by causing the violent death of a wizard under controlled conditions (i.e., murder) it's possible to harness the powerful burst of magic to make a ghost of the living caster instead of of the dying victim: a backup copy. A ghost may be static data rather than a running instance, but hey, so is a cryo patient.

  • Definitely: Baby Harry was overwritten with a horcrux-backup-copy of Voldemort. Voldemort didn't plan on childhood amnesia, though, and much of the information was erased (or at least made harder to access consciously). The Remembrall-like-the-Sun indicated the forgotten lifetime as Riddle. Remnants of Voldemort's memories are the reason Harrymort has a cold side; his upbringing in a loving family is the reason he has a warm side.

  • Mere hunch: In chapter 45, the Dementor recognized Harry as Voldemort and addressed him by name: "Riddle".

  • Mere hunch: Voldemort may have chosen to impress his horcrux in a living human in order to try to get around the "static data" problem. If it had worked, he would have forked himself -- there would have been two fully functional running instances of Voldemort, all the time, plus twelve hours a day worth of Time-copies.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 30 June 2013 09:47:23PM *  6 points [-]

The horcrux technology uses the ghost phenomenon. Specifically, by causing the violent death of a wizard under controlled conditions (i.e., murder)

Some of the horcruxes in canon are made from murdering Muggles, though.

In chapter 45, the Dementor recognized Harry as Voldemort and addressed him by name: "Riddle".

I don't see anywhere that this happens in Chapter 45.

Comment author: monsterzero 04 July 2013 01:53:11PM 5 points [-]

Very early in the chapter: "He had regained an impossible memory, for all that the Dementor had made him desecrate it. A strange word kept echoing in his mind."

And later: "Harry glanced in the Dementor's direction. The word echoed in his mind again. All right, Harry thought to himself, if the Dementor is a riddle, what is the answer? And just like that, it was obvious."

Once Harry figures out what Dementors are, he stops being able to hear their "voices", because he no longer sees (hears) them as sentient. But if "the word" was actually coming from the Dementor, I don't know what would've kept everyone else from hearing it.

Comment author: LauralH 09 January 2015 12:15:05PM 0 points [-]

Nice job!

Comment author: buybuydandavis 30 June 2013 11:02:09AM 0 points [-]

I think Voldemort sets himself up to move from host to host, and who better to move into, than the hero who saves the world from Voldemort?

Comment author: ikrase 30 June 2013 11:25:45AM 0 points [-]

Does that mean that both Harry and Quirrel are Voldemort?

Comment author: buybuydandavis 30 June 2013 06:58:55PM 3 points [-]

Without getting into a tiresome analysis of identity theory, Quirrell is currently almost entirely Voldemort, while Harry has a little of the devil in him.

Comment author: Skeeve 30 June 2013 01:31:46PM 0 points [-]

Not yet, but that would seem to be a plausible end-game for Quirrelmort.

Comment author: Alsadius 30 June 2013 07:29:19PM 1 point [-]

Dumbledore created Harry to be the ideal literary hero.

This is canon.

Dumbledore is working on way more advance information than everyone else.

To a lesser extent, this is as well.

Comment author: LucasSloan 01 July 2013 06:11:45AM *  2 points [-]

Let me be more specific then.

*Dumbledore has had the intention of creating the boy who lived since before Harry's birth and likely, before his parent's marriage.

*Dumbledore has access to many, many more prophecies than anyone else and has been using this fact for decades.

Comment author: Alsadius 02 July 2013 02:23:50AM 1 point [-]

Those are vastly more interesting predictions. Plausible, and it'd be an interesting story if true.