Shouldn’t it be Harry Potter-Evans-Verres and the Methods of Rationality?
Why is Harry so death averse? He claims to be a preference utilitarian, but the sorting hat had no desire to live, yet Harry didn’t want it to die.
Why does Harry reject the idea of Horcruxes? You can’t save more than half the population, so it’s hardly a permanent solution, but you could kill half of the people right before they die, and save the other half. This would work as a hold-over until Harry becomes God. Given my understanding of canon, this wouldn’t actually work, but Harry wouldn’t have no that yet.
In what way can a crime that hinges on an eleven-year-old boy be considered “the perfect crime”?
According to Wikipedia, timeless physics was discovered in 1999. If this takes place in 1991-1992, how does Harry know about it? Did he work it out himself?
To me the main reason of Harry rejecting Horcruxes is the “anti-Dark Lord Harry program”. Harry is trying hard (and with relative success) to prevent becoming a Dark Lord, and rejecting a way to reach immortality for some at the expense of killing others is a way to refuse the Dark Lord path. Harry (in my view) doesn’t fully trust himself to wield raw consequentialism, and he respects ethical injunctions like “murder is just wrong” (at least when he’s just a 11yo boy and still afraid of becoming a Dark Lord).
I always thought Harry rejected the idea of mass horcruxing because he was talking to Dumbledore and didn’t want to look evil, and that (conditional on better methods not coming around and continued trust in Quirrel) he would have discussed this later with Quirrel.
There’s a TVTropes discussion on this: Harry Potter Headscratchers
I might as well repeat the ones I put on there.
Shouldn’t it be Harry Potter-Evans-Verres and the Methods of Rationality?
Why is Harry so death averse? He claims to be a preference utilitarian, but the sorting hat had no desire to live, yet Harry didn’t want it to die.
Why does Harry reject the idea of Horcruxes? You can’t save more than half the population, so it’s hardly a permanent solution, but you could kill half of the people right before they die, and save the other half. This would work as a hold-over until Harry becomes God. Given my understanding of canon, this wouldn’t actually work, but Harry wouldn’t have no that yet.
In what way can a crime that hinges on an eleven-year-old boy be considered “the perfect crime”?
According to Wikipedia, timeless physics was discovered in 1999. If this takes place in 1991-1992, how does Harry know about it? Did he work it out himself?
To me the main reason of Harry rejecting Horcruxes is the “anti-Dark Lord Harry program”. Harry is trying hard (and with relative success) to prevent becoming a Dark Lord, and rejecting a way to reach immortality for some at the expense of killing others is a way to refuse the Dark Lord path. Harry (in my view) doesn’t fully trust himself to wield raw consequentialism, and he respects ethical injunctions like “murder is just wrong” (at least when he’s just a 11yo boy and still afraid of becoming a Dark Lord).
But Harry wasn’t afraid of being a Dark Lord until the end of being sorted.
Everything on that list (except for the timeless physics) has been answered on the Headscratchers thread itself.
As for timeless Physics, that’s just Eliezer making use of artistic licence.
Warning: Don’t wander. One of the things you can find on the sidebar has spoilers for upcoming chapters.
I always thought Harry rejected the idea of mass horcruxing because he was talking to Dumbledore and didn’t want to look evil, and that (conditional on better methods not coming around and continued trust in Quirrel) he would have discussed this later with Quirrel.