Skip to main content

harry potter - Why didn't Flamel make more than one Philosopher's Stone?


In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Harry Potter plans to use the Philosopher's Stone to guarantee immortality for everyone. (Yes, ambitious goal, dreams are free, etc etc...)


Obviously, things are a bit different from HPMOR to Harry Potter canon, where: Spoiler! If you are planning to read HPMOR (and you should), DO NOT read the spoiler.



Nicholas Flamel is not an immoral transgender liar who claimed that the ancient relic (the Philosopher's Stone) was actually made (not stolen from the previous owner), thus shutting out billions of people from immortality.




In the original Harry Potter universe, why didn't Flamel make more than one stone? He already knew how to do it and he had done it before, why didn't he make more stones so that everyone else could benefit?


Surely a 'good' wizard—companion of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin (first class), Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Grand Sorcerer, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, re-discoverer of the fabled Twelve Uses of Dragon Blood—would be concerned about everyone?



Note: not a duplicate of Why was there only one Sorcerer's Stone?, as that question is asking:



'Why did only Flamel make a Philosopher's Stone' (eg why didn't someone else make one)



while this question is asking:




'Why did Flamel make only one Philosopher's Stone' (eg why didn't Flamel make more than one stone).




Answer



Most people don't think they want to live forever, and don't think that other people really want to live forever.


In most literature (and stories, prior to writing) those who seek immortality find only tragedy. Most people would look at someone seeking the Stone and say, "They're greedy, and not good people."


We don't know why or how Flamel created the Stone, nor do we know if it can heal (as opposed to simply producing an elixir which extends your life). Flamel was obviously (given his agreement to destroy the stone) of the opinion that eternal life was NOT necessarily a good thing.


I, personally, agree with Harry from HPMOR (and the creator of that story, Eliezer Yudkowsky) that eternal life for everyone would be a good thing. Flamel, however, didn't. He thought it was better for people to eventually die than to live.


Presumably, the process to create a stone was one that required great precision and/or expensive/rare materials. I would presume that, were it reasonable to do so, each government would produce at least one Stone for their own use. The fact that no government is known to have done so indicates that the creation process is so difficult that only a scant few people could do it successfully, or that the materials are so rare as to be nigh-impossible to obtain.


So there's a few possible reasons Flamel would have not created more:




  • He's evil. The power MUST be his and his alone.

  • He can't. The process requires ingredients or rare circumstances that can't be brought about again.

  • He doesn't think it's a good idea.

  • The idea never occurred to him.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more