At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed. Moreover, if Voldemort discovers that Harry is trying to use tricky wording against him, he’ll likely conclude (correctly) that Harry is not at all interested in being cooperative, and then kill him.
The problem as I see is this: Voldemort is smart. Furthermore, he thinks like Harry, meaning that Harry’s plans will be especially easy for him to see through. Any sort of successful verbal trickery would by necessity have to be something that Voldemort can’t decode easily, which, given the constraints, seems to imply that the solution should involve domain-specific knowledge more than general intelligence, which in turn screams “Muggle knowledge!” to me. One example of this is the material implication trick I suggested (which I know you’ve already seen; I added the link there for other possible readers). Can anyone think of any other such tricks?
At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed.
Why? Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen? We could change the framing so it’s more of an explanation of entropy and heat death than an apparent trick (As I think some on Reddit have already done.), but I think this has a fair bit of potential at least as a tactic for buying time to partially transfigure something or for gaining access to Hermione if not for outright persuading Voldemort to let Harry out of the box.
Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen?
Heat death is a long ways off, and in the long run, it’s extremely unlikely that Harry is unique enough to play a crucial role in stopping it. Heck, Voldemort himself could read up on all the science Harry currently knows, a task that would take him at most eleven years, mostly like less (after all, Harry did it, and at a much younger age, too), and be at least every bit as well-suited as Harry is right now at stopping heat death, and probably much more well-suited seeing as he knows more magic. (Plus, eleven years on a cosmic scale is less than the blink of an eye.) I don’t think Voldemort would consider the (very probably minimal) value Harry has to offer in preventing the heat death of the universe enough positive utility to outweigh the fact that a prophecy said he would tear apart the very stars in heaven.
That is not to say, however, that this entire line of thought doesn’t work. If Harry has something to offer Voldemort that he would actually value highly enough to consider letting him live, then we’re in business. Off the top of my head I’m not thinking of anything, but it’s a definite possibility. (Intelligence enhancement, perhaps?) Still, I don’t think the “help stop heat death” offer is going to be the winning method.
At which point the obvious next question for Voldemort to ask is, “What iss thiss power you sspeak of?”, and then Harry would be pretty hosed. Moreover, if Voldemort discovers that Harry is trying to use tricky wording against him, he’ll likely conclude (correctly) that Harry is not at all interested in being cooperative, and then kill him.
The problem as I see is this: Voldemort is smart. Furthermore, he thinks like Harry, meaning that Harry’s plans will be especially easy for him to see through. Any sort of successful verbal trickery would by necessity have to be something that Voldemort can’t decode easily, which, given the constraints, seems to imply that the solution should involve domain-specific knowledge more than general intelligence, which in turn screams “Muggle knowledge!” to me. One example of this is the material implication trick I suggested (which I know you’ve already seen; I added the link there for other possible readers). Can anyone think of any other such tricks?
Why? Doesn’t Voldemort have an interest in not allowing the heat death of the Universe to happen? We could change the framing so it’s more of an explanation of entropy and heat death than an apparent trick (As I think some on Reddit have already done.), but I think this has a fair bit of potential at least as a tactic for buying time to partially transfigure something or for gaining access to Hermione if not for outright persuading Voldemort to let Harry out of the box.
Heat death is a long ways off, and in the long run, it’s extremely unlikely that Harry is unique enough to play a crucial role in stopping it. Heck, Voldemort himself could read up on all the science Harry currently knows, a task that would take him at most eleven years, mostly like less (after all, Harry did it, and at a much younger age, too), and be at least every bit as well-suited as Harry is right now at stopping heat death, and probably much more well-suited seeing as he knows more magic. (Plus, eleven years on a cosmic scale is less than the blink of an eye.) I don’t think Voldemort would consider the (very probably minimal) value Harry has to offer in preventing the heat death of the universe enough positive utility to outweigh the fact that a prophecy said he would tear apart the very stars in heaven.
That is not to say, however, that this entire line of thought doesn’t work. If Harry has something to offer Voldemort that he would actually value highly enough to consider letting him live, then we’re in business. Off the top of my head I’m not thinking of anything, but it’s a definite possibility. (Intelligence enhancement, perhaps?) Still, I don’t think the “help stop heat death” offer is going to be the winning method.