JKR cheat with the prophecy - Point of Destiny

[kempermentor]

No: HPFGUIDX 124978


Lupinlore wrote:
Let me try to cut to the chase and give an illustration of what I'm
getting at.  
 
Suppose you entered a room and saw a large curtain closing off the
back half.  One of your friends goes up and sticks his head through
the curtain.  He yells "There's a Doberman Pinscher in a tutu back 
here!"
 
At that moment he has made an observation, i.e. a statement about the
factual and existing state of affairs in the universe.  The
observation, i.e. the statement, can be either true or false.  If it
accurately states a real set of facts about the universe, it's true. 
If not, it's false.


Now, and this is very important, if the observation is true, there is
no way that any choice can make it false.  It reflects a real and
existing state of affairs.  The observer cannot wish these things away
or choose for them not to be so.  The people who listen to him can
choose to believe him or not, but they cannot by their choices affect
the actual truth or falsehood of the observation.  If there is a
Doberman in a tutu in the back of the room, there is a Doberman in a
tutu in the back of the room and no choice will change that.  Lastly,
there is nothing the OBSERVED can do to change it either.  The
Doberman cannot make any choice that will change the truth of the
observation.  He IS in the back of the room and he IS wearing a tutu.


Kemper now:
This kind of reminds me of Schrodinger's Cat.  Schrodinger's Cat is 
way of describing a principle of quantum theory, Superposition.

But let's use Filch's Cat for the example.  You place the living Mrs. 
Norris into a thick lead box.  At this point you know that Mrs. 
Norris is, unfortunately, alive, but... milliseconds before you slam 
the lid down on the box, you quickly throw a glass-vial of cyanide in 
the box.  Now, you don't know if the vial has broken or not, so you 
don't know if Mrs. Norris is alive or dead.  Quantum Law says that 
Mrs. Norris is both alive and dead--she is in a superposition of 
states. (An aside... I believe there is a room in Dept of Mysteries 
that whose mystery is on the quantum/subatomic level)  Mrs. Norris' 
superposition disapperates when you open the box and OBSERVE whether 
Mrs. Norris is alive or dead.

The prophecy is kind of like Filch's (Schrodinger's Cat), all the 
possibilities of the prophecy exist until after they are observed.
Let's use LV.  We throw the Dark Lord into a much bigger box.  
Milleseconds before we slam the lid shut, we hand the Dark Lord Baby 
Harry and Baby Neville and toss in his wand.  We know that the Dark 
Lord knows that both BH and BN were born to those who have thrice 
defied him, and that both were born as the seventh month dies. We 
know that the Dark Lord will probably /want/ to kill both, but we 
don't know /which one/ he will attempt the AK on first:  will it be 
Baby H or Baby N.  (For this example we will assume that he can only 
attempt to kill one of them as that will be the "mark him as his 
equal' part and therefore his only attempt at the AK will rip him 
from his body)  So, according to Quantum Law the two possibilities 
that occur in this situation are

1. The Dark Lord attempted to AK Baby Harry
2. The Dark Lord attempted to AK Baby Neville 

or if we prefer, and I do, the two possibilities are

1. Harry is the boy who lived
2. Neville is the boy who lived

Again, both of these possibilities exist simultaneously UNTIL we open 
the box and OBSERVE which is true.  In that observation, we find out 
what the Dark Lord's choice, free and clear, was.

Kemper,
who is feeling pretty bad ass about this post and who is eagerly 
waiting how Lupinlore, Steve or others(quantum physicists who will 
tear my post to shreads) might respond