Dumbledore- Time, Wisdom, & Spies

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 116554


Dungrollin:
> However in answering the question about Harry being able to 
see  Sirius again in a painting, JKR was obviously thinking only 
about  the paintings in OotP, and forgot about The Fat Lady and 
Sir Cadogen. The Fat lady can ask for the passwords, get drunk 
at Christmas,  gossip with the other paintings, and be afraid and 
ashamed enough to  hide in a map of - was it Derbyshire? - 
when attacked by Sirius,  and, like Sir Cadogen, have a 
(relatively) normal conversation with  real people.  
> 

I think the paintings are meant to be a bit like the old ELIZA  
computer program -- an early attempt at artificial 
intelligence which mimicked a human psychotherapist. It could 
ask questions,  and obey simple commands, based on its 
repertory of canned responses to certain keywords. 


Sir Cadogan a can carry on a conversation of sorts, express 
some emotions and follow simple instructions. However, his 
ability to reason is quite limited. Given  the correct password, he 
is incapable of denying Sirius entrance to Gryffindor Tower  or 
even raising the alarm.

  Similarly, the Marauder's Map has enough "intelligence" about 
its environment to make jokes about Snape being a professor, 
but not to realize that it would be highly inadvisable to do so. It's 
lucky it didn't get thrown into the fire.

I don't think Harry would be happy with Virtual Sirius for very long.

Pippin