Horcruxes As Mind: If we assume there is no soul, then a Horcrux must preserve the mind. At least, part of it. Perhaps what is preserved is some random subset of the person’s memories, desires, priors and weights. Or perhaps the division is along some nice mental function. The container probably has some extra functions (see below). It’s a play on the phrase “cached thoughts”!
Losing Your Mind Step 1: Tom Riddle was probably brilliant, and more complex than Voldemort in his final days. Perhaps you lose the part of your mind encoded in the Horcrux. Not right away. But you are no longer connected to that part of yourself. You can’t even tell where it is. It’s locked up.
It could also be a trade. You are taking some of the victim’s mind, which yours may or may not reject. They would get some of yours in return, but they die, and the process allows that foreign piece of mind to be preserved somehow.
This would explain why (if we follow canon) Voldemort became more singly monsterous over time, and apparently more simple-minded. He was losing his mind—his memories and goals. But something remained, until his timely death.
Losing Your Mind, Step 2: To lose the rest of your mind is suicide. You would be using murder of another to murder yourself—no mind, no self. To stage a suicide, why not get the other person to murder you? Then that person gets the last bit of your mind. Of course, it will take time to dissolve fully. As a baby, Harry had very little on way of mind to lose. But he had quite a bit to gain. Voldemort gave up the last of his mind to Harry, in a package that would unfold over time. Why? I’m not sure.
Recovering Your Mind, Step 1: When you find a Horcrux and “read” it, you gain back those priors. However, a real brain is too complex and developed to just inject new memories, desires, priors, weights and all that into it. The Horcrux is a mechanism for switching. It weeds out old beliefs, and injects the new ones. This takes time. The time depends on how similar you are already to the original mind.
Recovering Your Mind, Step 2: If Quirrell collects the last of Voldemort’s mental facility save for what’s in Harry, then one simply needs to kill the other in exactly the right way to regain the last of Voldemort’s mental facility.
This would make my earlier speculation sort of compatible with this idea that Psy-Kosh had.
I’m pretty sure this doesn’t explain much about magic in general. I just suggested that the mystery might be transferred to a magical process, rather than the existence of souls.
And I agree with your statment. But it’s a question of how much he wants the reductionist notions about the Universe that Harry holds to be false.
Some wild hypotheses:
Horcruxes As Mind: If we assume there is no soul, then a Horcrux must preserve the mind. At least, part of it. Perhaps what is preserved is some random subset of the person’s memories, desires, priors and weights. Or perhaps the division is along some nice mental function. The container probably has some extra functions (see below). It’s a play on the phrase “cached thoughts”!
Losing Your Mind Step 1: Tom Riddle was probably brilliant, and more complex than Voldemort in his final days. Perhaps you lose the part of your mind encoded in the Horcrux. Not right away. But you are no longer connected to that part of yourself. You can’t even tell where it is. It’s locked up.
It could also be a trade. You are taking some of the victim’s mind, which yours may or may not reject. They would get some of yours in return, but they die, and the process allows that foreign piece of mind to be preserved somehow.
This would explain why (if we follow canon) Voldemort became more singly monsterous over time, and apparently more simple-minded. He was losing his mind—his memories and goals. But something remained, until his timely death.
Losing Your Mind, Step 2: To lose the rest of your mind is suicide. You would be using murder of another to murder yourself—no mind, no self. To stage a suicide, why not get the other person to murder you? Then that person gets the last bit of your mind. Of course, it will take time to dissolve fully. As a baby, Harry had very little on way of mind to lose. But he had quite a bit to gain. Voldemort gave up the last of his mind to Harry, in a package that would unfold over time. Why? I’m not sure.
Recovering Your Mind, Step 1: When you find a Horcrux and “read” it, you gain back those priors. However, a real brain is too complex and developed to just inject new memories, desires, priors, weights and all that into it. The Horcrux is a mechanism for switching. It weeds out old beliefs, and injects the new ones. This takes time. The time depends on how similar you are already to the original mind.
Recovering Your Mind, Step 2: If Quirrell collects the last of Voldemort’s mental facility save for what’s in Harry, then one simply needs to kill the other in exactly the right way to regain the last of Voldemort’s mental facility.
This would make my earlier speculation sort of compatible with this idea that Psy-Kosh had.
I pretty sure Eliezer won’t create a dry, technical, explanation of magic. That would just be too boring.
I’m pretty sure Eliezer thinks technical explanations don’t have to be dry or boring.
(In fact, this would be a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that...)
Someone didn’t play Ars Magica...
I’m pretty sure this doesn’t explain much about magic in general. I just suggested that the mystery might be transferred to a magical process, rather than the existence of souls.
And I agree with your statment. But it’s a question of how much he wants the reductionist notions about the Universe that Harry holds to be false.