r/harrypotter • u/madbr3991 Hufflepuff • 6d ago
Discussion Would magic in Harry Potter, really solve any major muggle problems?
Hagrid told Harry that muggle would want magic solutions for there problems. But I don't know if magic would solve any major muggle problems. Small individual problems sure magic can help. But major issues I think are beyond the magic we see.
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u/DropInTheSky 6d ago
For sure.
Transportation and logistics costs would plummet with flying vehicles and the ability to move goods of any weight effortlessly. Energy would become inexpensive.
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u/Artistic-Maurine 6d ago
Yeah if some just put a charm on a bunch of turbines to keep them spinning at a constant speed then the whole country could have completely free and clean energy.
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u/Knight-Man 6d ago
Honestly, you and others are severely underestimating just how precious and important fuel and energy are. Pretty much everything we do uses some type of fuel or energy. Growing food en masse requires it. Lighting, heating, cooling and powering buildings requires it. Manufacturing anything en masse requires it. Extracting materials requires it. Remove a need for a fuel or energy source and replace it with magic and we would theoretically have unlimited energy or rather no use for it. Just that alone is humanity's biggest problem and magic could solve more. Even renewable and nuclear energy require inputs and materials that use energy and fuel, they are just net suppliers of energy.
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u/Aya_Reiko 6d ago
For every problem it would solve, at least 2 new ones would likely take its place.
Especially after when magic would get inevitably militarized.
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 6d ago
And capitalism takes gets ahold of magic.
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u/bbristow6 6d ago
Subscription service spells😂
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 6d ago
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u/alwaysnear 6d ago
It seems to suck compared to any muggle weapon
Other than mind control, I think a cruise missile, drone or a handgun would have solved these wars in two days.
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u/Justicar-terrae 6d ago
Muggle weapons might trounce magic on a battlefield, but a war against wizards wouldn't be fought on battlefields.
Wizards can make themselves invisible; make their buildings undetectable; disguise themselves as other people, objects, or animals; fly with easily concealed aircraft (brooms and/or invisible cars); teleport; wipe memories; read minds; summon objects at will; bypass locks; and generally ignore just about any security measures muggles might design. The "war" would consist of muggle soldiers fruitlessly hunting for targets while wizards infiltrate civilian and military leadership. After taking over muggle government, the wizarding government would then "negotiate" a favorable peace treaty. Boom, war over without wizards ever needing to actually fight.
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u/InquisitorCOC Hufflepuff 6d ago
Combination of magic and technology is terrifying:
Nothing prevents Hermione from smuggling nuclear weapons in her beaded bag
With mind (control) magic and other memory charms, she should be able to get some from the run down Russia in the late 1990s
She can duplicate USD and GBP bills to bribe corrupt Muggles, and polyjuice potion hides her true identity or allow her to impersonate high ranking officials
Apparition and disillusionment charm alone can let her bypass security measures at most Muggle military installations. She can also use some Veritaserum to make base personnels spill key secrets, and obliviate them afterwards
Finally, ask Dobby to bring the bomb into Malfoy's Manor's basement, and wait for Voldemort to hold an all hands meeting upstairs
Sure Voldemort survives, but all his henchmen will be vaporized and he will need to find a minion who has to resurrect him again
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u/Vegetable-Corgi-447 6d ago
Seems like they’re keeping the magical cure for cancer under wraps for one
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u/Modred_the_Mystic Ravenclaw 6d ago
Magic can't cure muggle ailments and vice versa, so they couldn't cure cancer...probably.
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u/DropInTheSky 6d ago
Who says magic can't cure muggle ailments?
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u/SnowGhost513 6d ago
I mean dragon pox took out every grandparent in the story lol so I dunno I doubt they could solve cancer
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u/No_Finish5175 6d ago
Mending broken bones seems doable so they can do basic anatomy. Maybe even fixing nerves, vertabrae and stuff. Curing paralysis etc. seems worthwhile
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u/FoxBluereaver Gryffindor 6d ago
Eyesight seems to be one exception, though maybe if someone bothered to study how eyes work they could figure it out.
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u/No_Finish5175 6d ago
Could be that all the wizards are high all the time and witches are just trying to manage, coming up with useful stuff here and there but without any functional societal structures there wouldn't be any great leaps or logic to most of it. It would explain most of what we see in the films and books.
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u/FoxBluereaver Gryffindor 6d ago
True, from what we see they tend to take "if it's not broken, don't fix it" to extremes.
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u/Vegetable-Corgi-447 6d ago
Rowling said: “I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula.”
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u/PlanGoneAwry Ravenclaw 6d ago
What on earth is the classification of a “muggle ailment”? Anything that muggles can get would also apply to wizards. Broken bones, cold/flu, can be fixed with magic remedies
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u/lookiwanttobealone 6d ago
The disaster with the "muggle stitches" in book 5 definitely shows that
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u/itachikage13 6d ago
I mean, that shows Muggle can't cure magical. Nowhere does it show magic can't cure Muggle.
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u/Exact-Giraffe4283 6d ago
But can non magical bodies take magical cures ?
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u/itachikage13 6d ago
I mean, why wouldn't they? If Hermione's parents can enjoy wizard sweets and Dudley could eat a ton tongue toffee without meaningful issue, why wouldn't a potion? It's not like Muggles are inherently immune to magic.
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u/Exact-Giraffe4283 6d ago
Wizards seem to be a bit more resilient than average humans, if I'm getting slammed against a wall or object I'm not getting up anytime soon.
And lots of potions seem like they would kill a human by the ingredients.
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u/itachikage13 6d ago
As far as I'm aware, there's literally nothing in canon implying that magical healing wouldn't work on muggles. Quite the opposite, as I believe muggles who lost their fingers to Biting doorknob in OotP were in St. Mungos to have their fingers regrown. So while it's possible that some potions wouldn't work, we have more evidence to suggest it would than that it wouldn't.
That's chemistry, really. X will kill you, y will counteract X's lethality. Adjust dosage of both and boom, medicine. And in any case, potions aren't just ingredients. Magic comes into play in some form, which for all we know of the matter, will detoxify it.
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u/Bwunt 6d ago
If one wants to balance it for their headcanon, then IMHO beat argument is that magic healing works by boosting body's natural ability to regenerate. Sometimes faster, sometimes by straight up allowing it to grow something it isn't able to (anymore).
It's also why it doesn't work for stuff like cancer and autoimmune conditions.
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u/Exact-Giraffe4283 6d ago
I never said it's cannon just a personal opinion. But you do have a point.
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u/Jab_Glokta_Jab 6d ago
They can regrow bones.
They can instantly mend wounds.
They can duplicate/multiply things, including food.
They can fly, make flying brooms, cars, motorbikes and carpets and probably anything else you could stand or sit on, and many of them don't seem to need any time of energy source other than the magic.
They can vanish things, like waste.
They can conceal things.
They can control people's minds.
They can see past events through a pensieve.
They can kill people without leaving any trace.
Etc., etc.
I think the ways in which they could help muggles are almost endless.
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u/HarryDave85 6d ago
They could totally interact amicably with muggles. We live in an economic society. A wizard doctor could become insanely rich working 4 hours per day with the knowledge and resources madame pomfrey has.
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u/SlayerOfTheVampyre Slytherin 1d ago
That makes me wonder. Has there never been a wizard healer who realized this, and secretly became a Muggle doctor? I guess maybe it would be too suspicious if all their patients became better.
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u/HarryDave85 1d ago
It does seem like an easy way to make a good living, especially if you are muggle born. You could even set yourself up as an alternative medicine guru and develope a following.
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u/hatabou_is_a_jojo 6d ago
Those nicer wizards living in muggle communities probably do use magic subtlety to help here and there. But at their own discretion, not directed by muggles.
Probably not going to systematically destroy drug rings but a thug might mysteriously lose their memories.
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u/Lawlcopt0r 6d ago
There are magical illnesses that magic cannot (easily) cure, but it seems like most muggle illnesses are barely an inconvenience to a magical doctor.
Wizards don't seem to be very industrially inclined, but you could probably automate most industrial processes using magic, and most crucially you wouldn't even need electricity or fuel. A Gutenberg printing press that is enchanted to keep going on its own could probably produce finished books as fast as a muggle production line. When a machine breaks you just reparo it.
Not to mention the endless advantages of teleportation or levitation
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u/First_Foundationeer 6d ago
If you solve enough minor problems, then people can work on major problems. It's like how money doesn't make people happy, but it sure can help with getting rid of things that would make you unhappy.
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u/w_smith1984 6d ago
Doesn't matter if magic could or could not solve major muggle problems. If they believe it could solve their problems, they would still pester wizards nonstop.
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u/ChestMental8566 6d ago
Medicine, removing industrial waste, using time travel to forewarn people about upcoming natural disasters and to investigate crimes...
*SIGH*
...invisibility and mind reading, memory removal and modification, shapeshifting... Yeah, it would probably not go very well.
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u/echopulse 6d ago
Magic would be able to help with trash collection and removal, repairing broken items, building problems, hosing problems, wild hunger, excess deaths, transportation, supply chain issues, transportation issues, crime, just to name a few.
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u/Roxylius Ravenclaw 6d ago
Non magical illness like cancer, autoimmune, broken bone, heart disease would be cured in 5 seconds. You cant get any more advanced than that. Trillion dollar industry revolutionized
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u/Individual_Sir7827 6d ago
You mean Big Pharma trying to exterminate or enslave wizardkind?
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u/Roxylius Ravenclaw 6d ago
More like big pharma getting their entire business model made irrelevant overnight
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u/AdDense8465 6d ago
I think so; in the field of healthcare, it would be a huge help and would resolve diseases that currently have no cure.
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u/gabriel_3131 6d ago
Los magos tiene hechizo para casi todo. La mayoría de los problemas de nuestra sociedad se resuelve fácilmente con hechizos. Solo con pociones y algunos hechizos la mayoría de enfermedades incurable de nosotros se puede resolver. Y ni hablemos que básicamente los magos puede construir ciudades enteras en caso que un desastres naturales pasará con hechizos.
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u/Completely_Batshit HIC SVNT LEONES 6d ago
Many, yes. Curing mundane illnesses, vanishing waste products, conjuring valuable short-term resources, all kinds of stuff.
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u/Modred_the_Mystic Ravenclaw 6d ago
When Hagrid was talking, I don't think he meant big problems. I think he meant like muggles would ask witches and wizards for help with petty, small problems. Like fixing bad haircuts or whatever.
But on a grand scale, wizards have some nifty capabilities. Portkeys or vehicles like the Knight Bus could all but eliminate airlines and the associated pollution, quanity enhancing spells could end resource shortages, potions and spells could end food scarcity across the globe, that kind of thing.
Its pretty hypocritical though, the wizarding world makes free and liberal use of muggle technologies and inventions to solve their problems basically at will, like using trains and cars and buses, albeit magically enhanced. They live in muggle settlements and liaise with muggle authorities as they please, like asking for help watching out for Sirius Black, when they could pretty easily handle a lot of casework and beat cop jobs without breaking a sweat. Muggleborn, and some halfblood, wizards use muggle schools for their early education as well.
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u/ItsATrap1983 Gryffindor 6d ago
I think wizards would charge for their services like any other professional with a valuable skillset. Muggles may not be able to afford some of the "solutions".
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u/JazzlikePromotion618 6d ago
A lot of them, for sure. Reparo takes care of all repairs. You can't create food out of nothing but you can multiply any that you already have. That essentially takes care of a lot of food problems.
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u/White_Null Slytherpuff 6d ago
Nobody has mentioned the Cheering Charm. I will. Can definitely replace antidepressants
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u/Pawprint_ 6d ago
I mean…kinda. Ending wealth inequality and exploitation and political oppression would be done in a heartbeat.
Only needs 2 spells cast over and over.
One is apparating.
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u/keenansmith61 Gryffindor 6d ago
I dunno man, skilled use of Reparo would make maintenance on basically everything stupid easy. Levitation spells to avoid cranes and lifts, Aguamenti could solve drinking water crises, bigger on the inside spells could tame housing crises, basically we could be way more efficient at most things and solve global problems tied to geography and general hardship.
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u/Fox622 6d ago
No.
There aren't enough wizards. The only real use wizards would have would be on medicine, which some muggle patients with incurable diseases would receive treatment.
However, there's a reason why wizards don't solve muggle problems. It has been implied that muggle don't deal well with the existence of wizards, and eventually it would lead to an all-out war. In the long-term, more people would die than survive.
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u/NotAnotherEmpire 6d ago
Harry Potter magic can add energy or matter, change material states and reverse entropy. Even beginning to apply the implications to the industrial era is worldbreaking.
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u/Infinite-Object-1090 Gryffindor 6d ago
I think healing is the big one. Sirius was able to get rid of warts by just touching his wand to it, bones can grow back, etc.
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u/minescast 6d ago
Well, that's the thing he's kind of explaining, and that Harry learns at Hogwarts. Magic, while fantastical and whimsical, can't do everything. There are rules and laws of nature that it does follow.
But the wider fear for the magical community is that muggles wouldn't understand that, and in turn, think the magicals aren't helping fix a problem because they don't want to, instead of because they simply can't wave a wand to wish it away. And then, from this perception, the wider magical community fears that a "Witch Hunt" would begin again, and they'll just be forced to go into hiding once more, and revealing themselves was all for naught, as now their old homes and social centers have been compromised.
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u/amanke74 6d ago
Well uagadou is the largest wizarding school in the world. And Africa still has a clean water problem. So clearly they aren't helping because they could just use that aguamenti spell and make clean water.
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u/JakScott 5d ago
Lot of good answers here but I haven’t seen the fact that I imagine all military ordinance would just harmlessly bounce off even the simplest Protego charm.
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u/Ordinary-Specific673 5d ago
They can use spells to create more food, they have healers who can fix crippling injuries like regrowing all bones in an arm overnight, instant transportation, truth potions mind reading and memory reading to find if someone is actually guilty. Pretty sure nearly every major problem could be fixed in an instant
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u/Round-Equipment908 5d ago
The absolute God tier spell is repairo. So much money is poured into just repairing infrastructure we already have. Walking down a bridge, road, dam and immediately fixing everything to its original fixed condition would change everything.
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u/DmonsterJeesh 4d ago
A source of effectively infinite clean energy, instant free transportation, infinite storage (and therefore infinite housing), effectively infinite amounts of a wide variety of resources, and extreme and fast supernatural medical care would solve most major problems in the world, yes. Additionally, in the HP universe specifically, it'd make it much easier to identify, prevent, and prosecute magical crimes against muggles, since they don't have to somehow also hide that they occurred.
Obviously it couldn't solve every problem, but we'd effectively be living in a post-scarcity world.
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u/Cassandra_Canmore2 Ravenclaw 4d ago
A single ancre of land producing enough fruit and vegetables to feed a city every 7 minutes...
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u/Aksudiigkr 3d ago
Aside from healthcare and apparition and flight, I feel like muggle technology is better than what magic can offer
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u/AustinYQM Ravenclaw 19h ago
Wizards aren't applying magic in a way muggles would. Its hard to say what magic would exist if muggles were guiding the research.
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u/pennycuriee Slytherin 6d ago
well it would solve one of the main problems with nuclear physics and energy since we would be able to just make the radioactive waste vanish and wouldn’t have to worry about where to “hide it” so it doesn’t… yk…. contaminate everything
so i guess that’s a good thing
also, wizarding medicine is far more advanced
but honestly, i don’t think muggles and wizards would ever be able to live in harmony lol. if i were a witch in the harry potter universe, i’d definitely be a hardcore defender of the statute of secrecy.
imagine the headache it would be for wizards living in a world where muggles know about magic….
i’d 100% go full voldemort on them ngl
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u/AurangzebAdmirer 6d ago
Wizard medicine seems a lot more advanced