![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've linked before to the fanfic Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: a sort of remake of the Harry Potter universe where Harry (and, it seems likely, Voldemort) has a strongly scientific mindset. I'm thoroughly enjoying it: the story itself is pretty good, and it's fun to see someone explore aspects of Harry's world (or a near copy) in the way I always wanted to.
Anyway, partly to make note of some current guesses and partly in case any of you folks are following the story and wanted to talk about it, I thought I'd say a bit here. Spoilers ahead up through chapter 25 or so.
First idea: When Draco suggests the equivalent of a Dark Mark in Ch. 21, Harry raises what ought to be an obvious objection to the idea: isn't is rather foolish to make sure everyone in the world can trivially check whether someone is a member of your evil conspiracy? In the original books, I didn't think too hard about that (perhaps because there were a lot of irrational things going on), but if the Dark Mark is present here (with Voldemort actually being smart) there must be some reason. My thought at the time was that the only reason to have a clear mark that everyone knew could identify your followers would be if some of the most important of them didn't have it. That seems to have been somewhat confirmed in Ch. 25, when Quirrell uses his lack of a Dark Mark as proof that he's not a Death Eater. ("Some of the most important" could quite easily include Voldemort himself.)
Second (and bigger) idea: Harry seems to have determined (as of Chs. 22-24 or thereabouts) that the rules for magic were in fact created by the inhabitants of ancient Atlantis. To use magic, you need the right DNA and also knowledge of very specific words and actions to make each spell work. Moreover, it's possible for someone to rather fundamentally change the rules (as seems to be evident in the "Interdict of Merlin" that limited how knowledge of magic could be passed down). And in this fanfic, everything we see is going on within a world whose fundamental laws are those that modern science has determined. So how can there be magic?
The answer, I think, is an old one: sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The people of Atlantis created some sort of computer (or the equivalent) with enormous power to influence matter and energy on Earth (and who knows how far away). They protected their power by linking access to the computer to their DNA. It continued to serve their descendants after Atlantis was destroyed (and into the present day). But Merlin (and perhaps others) had sufficient control over the computer to change some of its basic rules of operation, and he managed to limit all(?) later wizards to a more restricted form of access. (Did everyone have root access in Merlin's day, or did he hack his way in, or what?)
So are there man pages Harry might be able to access? Will Harry manage to get root? (I wonder if that joke version of the sorting hat story came too close for comfort?) Are there limits to the range of magic, and if so, what does that mean about the Voyager plaque? Stay tuned!
Anyway, partly to make note of some current guesses and partly in case any of you folks are following the story and wanted to talk about it, I thought I'd say a bit here. Spoilers ahead up through chapter 25 or so.
First idea: When Draco suggests the equivalent of a Dark Mark in Ch. 21, Harry raises what ought to be an obvious objection to the idea: isn't is rather foolish to make sure everyone in the world can trivially check whether someone is a member of your evil conspiracy? In the original books, I didn't think too hard about that (perhaps because there were a lot of irrational things going on), but if the Dark Mark is present here (with Voldemort actually being smart) there must be some reason. My thought at the time was that the only reason to have a clear mark that everyone knew could identify your followers would be if some of the most important of them didn't have it. That seems to have been somewhat confirmed in Ch. 25, when Quirrell uses his lack of a Dark Mark as proof that he's not a Death Eater. ("Some of the most important" could quite easily include Voldemort himself.)
Second (and bigger) idea: Harry seems to have determined (as of Chs. 22-24 or thereabouts) that the rules for magic were in fact created by the inhabitants of ancient Atlantis. To use magic, you need the right DNA and also knowledge of very specific words and actions to make each spell work. Moreover, it's possible for someone to rather fundamentally change the rules (as seems to be evident in the "Interdict of Merlin" that limited how knowledge of magic could be passed down). And in this fanfic, everything we see is going on within a world whose fundamental laws are those that modern science has determined. So how can there be magic?
The answer, I think, is an old one: sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The people of Atlantis created some sort of computer (or the equivalent) with enormous power to influence matter and energy on Earth (and who knows how far away). They protected their power by linking access to the computer to their DNA. It continued to serve their descendants after Atlantis was destroyed (and into the present day). But Merlin (and perhaps others) had sufficient control over the computer to change some of its basic rules of operation, and he managed to limit all(?) later wizards to a more restricted form of access. (Did everyone have root access in Merlin's day, or did he hack his way in, or what?)
So are there man pages Harry might be able to access? Will Harry manage to get root? (I wonder if that joke version of the sorting hat story came too close for comfort?) Are there limits to the range of magic, and if so, what does that mean about the Voyager plaque? Stay tuned!