The Statute of Secrecy

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 159193

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Ken:
> > 
> > I think it far more likely that St. Mungo's would be deluged
> > with Muggles seeking treatement for diseases we cannot 
> > cure. I think it far more likely that Hogwarts woul be 
> > deluged with physicists wanting to study the relationship
> > between magic and the rest of physics. I think it far more
> > likely that energy companies would vie for the rights to 
> > the limitless, non-polluting energy source the WW taps
> > into. The WW seems to have the solutions for many of our
> > problems, isn't it extremely selfish of them to keep these
> > wonderful technologies from a world that needs them
> > so desperately? <snip>
> 
> Carol responds:
> I'm not so sure. Wizards can mend broken bones and broken noses with a
> spell (wonder why Dumbledore's and Ludo Bagman's weren't mended?), but
> Mad-Eye Moody can't regrow his missing parts and the school still
> seems to suffer an annual outbreak of flu. I don't see any cures for
> cancer or other familiar diseases in the WW, not even the common cold.
> They use quill pens and parchment like Muggles in the Middle Ages and
> candles for lighting (ever try grading essays or doing homework by
> candlelight?). Hogwarts is so cold in winter that kids wear cloaks and
> gloves in the corridors. (Durmstrang must be nearly unbearable.) They
> don't have computers or telephones or even cars.) Yes, some of them
> can Apparate, but they can't teach that skill to Muggles even if they
> wanted to.
> 
> Carol, who likes the WW *because* it doesn't have modern technology
> but thinks that Wizards have as much to learn from us as we do from them
>

Ken:

Ah, but the WW is being victimized by their author's lack of science education.
The amount of enery a Quidditch team expends in a match is quite astounding
really. It is totally free and causes no apparent pollution. I know that the Red
Hen is on record as saying that this energy comes from Harry's breakfast but
he simply does not eat that much. You are looking at the solution to both 
the world's energy dilemma and global warming here and you don't realize it
because the author does not realize what she has created and you are not
trained in the right field to recognize it.

As for medicine, I grant that I may have overstated the case as presented in 
canon but surely as you yourself hint above the WW and the Muggle world
could both benefit by comparing medical notes.

Physicists would *love* having magic to study. It's existence would totally 
overturn the apple cart and the young turks among them, at least, love it
when that happens. Dozens and dozens of Nobel Prizes almost free for the
taking! As I've said before some of the multi-dimensional theories of modern
physics could, in the hand waving sense that is the essence of willing 
suspension of disbelief, explain how a wizard's trunk, car, or house can be 
larger inside than outside. These theories are the current best guess as the
basis for a Theory of Everything, the Holy Grail of physics. This would be 
very big news in the world of physics.

So, with some groundwork by Muggle and Ministry politicians and some 
assitance from Madison Avenue and Holywood types, I believe that properly 
presented there would be no massive social disruption if it were suddenly
announced that the WW was in fact real. With a modest amount of emphasis
on the fact that wizards and witches are otherwise normal, decent humans
with knowledge of a completely different kind of science that could one day
help make life better for everyone I just don't see people reacting negatively
to the news.

There are times when I am charmed by the backwardness of the WW and there
are times when it just seems too "Flintstone-ish" to me. They do everything we
do, they have everything we have, it's just that theirs are all powered by little
dinosaurs. It doesn't work for me as a critical examination of modern 
conveniences because the WW just mimics everything we do with a technolgy
that is different but still a technology. It might seem greener, it might be
greener than ours but that is a reason to share it not to condemn what we
do.

Ken