computers, logic and complex magic

[frantyck at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 29566

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Joanne0012 at a... wrote:
[snip]
> Alchemy spilt off from scientific chemistry at just about the same 
time that > the wizarding world went into hiding. In some sense, the 
wizarding world is > stuck in the past and handicapped by its lack of 
discipline and logic, as further > evidenced by the crudeness of its 
judiciary system, with its fondness for > post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc 
conclusions. We have to wonder how Dumbledore > and Flamel went about 
identifying twelve uses for dragons' blood.



(Argh. So much for late-night lucidity. The subject line should 
read "computers, logic and complex magic." After all, logic involves 
simplifying and clarifying...)

The wizarding world went into hiding after the witchcraft trials of 
the early modern period (which Wendelin the Weird quite enjoyed), 
right? That would place it in the sixteenth or seventeenth century 
sometime. The Lexicon notes that the process of separation began in 
the 15th century, if not earlier, and was completed in 1692 with a 
formal International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.
http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/timeline_history_magic.html

Bexis points out that:
"the final parting of the ways between the art of alchemy and the
science of chemistry did not occur until Mendeleev's discovery of the
periodic table in the 1860s.  Before that, it was a mystery why 
various elements behaved the way they did, and alchemical theories 
thrived in that mystery.  After Mendeleev, chemistry was much more 
amenable to the scientific method."

Did alchemy actually command any respect by the nineteenth century? 
Was it anything like medieval alchemy by that time? Although your 
argument makes a lot of sense, it seems just a little odd that the 
more rational understanding of the physical universe that supposedly 
emerged from the 'scientific revolution' of the seventeenth century 
would completely have passed by the science or art (there's another 
issue!) of materials... alchemy aka/vs chemistry. You say, of course, 
the *final* parting of ways, which makes sense.

But is Rowling magic, even potions and the philo's stone, much like 
medieval alchemy? I'm not sure, does someone know enough to compare 
them? Snape's introductory speech gives some idea of the scope of 
potion-making, even if most uses are far more mundane.

Joanne again:
"In some sense, the wizarding world is stuck in the past and 
handicapped by its lack of discipline and logic, as further 
evidenced by the crudeness of its judiciary system, with its fondness 
for post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc conclusions. We have to wonder how 
Dumbledore and Flamel went about identifying twelve uses for dragons' 
blood."

But that's just it: wizards *cannot* lack practical logic, because of 
the nature of the complex magic they must do. Gringotts spells must 
be like complex security systems in the Muggle world, they need to be 
as failproof and carefully engineered as anything else... and 
Gringotts does hire wizards, since we know Bill Weasley works for the 
bank as a curse breaker.

And then there's the judicial system, you're right. Very confusing.