Poll: Magic vs Technology

Professor James

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Aug 5, 2010
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Would you rather live in a world at the current an advancing technological level or would you live in an universe similar to dragon age or Fable where technology is more or less locked at the medieval level but magic is available?
 

tippy2k2

Beloved Tyrant
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Mar 15, 2008
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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

Technology all the way.

Technology can advance; magic will not. +1 Technology

Technology is available to all. From most stories, magic is not. +1 Technology

Technology will create Terminators to enslave all mankind; Magic will summon demons to enslave all mankind. Uh....tie?
 

Neverhoodian

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Apr 2, 2008
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tippy2k2 said:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

Technology all the way.
I agree. In fact, I sometimes consider modern technology as magical.

Here I am communicating instantly with people from around the world, with the entirety of human knowledge at my fingertips[footnote]Knowledge we regularly ignore in favor of porn and cat videos.[/footnote]. That's pretty goddamn magical if you ask me.
 

Xan Krieger

Completely insane
Feb 11, 2009
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Deus Ex or Morrowind? Yeah I'm going technology, I'm already on a computer all day so more technology is always better. Besides, mechs are technology and mechs beat any magic.
 

TakerFoxx

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Jan 27, 2011
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On the one hand, indoor plumbing.

On the other, that dude can set my skin on fire.

Technology.
 

tilmoph

Gone Gonzo
Jun 11, 2013
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Technology. It is usable by the masses, usually fairly readily, that is, without much if any training. Magic is usually in the hands of a few lucky stars who got the right genes or soul shard or whatever. Aside from the simple fact that some random asshole might, for the lulz, decide to summon some mega demon that will rape-murder the whole damn planet, with no real mechanism to stop them, there's the simple fact that magic being such few hands means it can really improve mundane life too much, partly due to production issues (how do you mass produce, say, spells that work the same as antibiotics), and partly because you have to hope that the mages actually think to come up with, say, magical indoor pluming, or the mystical internet that non sorcerers can use in the first place.
 

Rahkshi500

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May 25, 2014
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Magitek! Magic being used in more "science-cy" ways to where devices and artifacts have been developed to where they are easily used as equivalents to our world's modern technology. The best of both worlds!
 

FirstNameLastName

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Nov 6, 2014
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Depends. Is there any magic in this universe that allows me to become some kind of immortal demigod? As cool as magic is, if i have to spend my life squatting over a chamber pot and wearing rags then no amount of fire, ice and lightning would be worth it. If there is magic that is sufficiently powerful i would opt for magic, if not then i would go tech.
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
18,863
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if Harry Potter is any indication magical worlds suuuuuuuuck

like sociological and cultural stagnation for one

EDIT: you know now that I think about it the Tevintor imperium from Dragon age (or Magesterium to be prsice) is starting to sound familiar to the Ministry of magic from HP
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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I going with techology since last time I check, there is no magic version of an internet or a super version of it (or I'm not reading or looking for the right stories or universe).
 

Proto Taco

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Apr 30, 2013
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Just lift the veil and give me the Sixth World. Then I don't have to chose, I can have technology, magic AND a convenient moral excuse to abuse the drek out of them.
 

Thaluikhain

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Jan 16, 2010
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Medieval level technology makes for a really crappy place to live. Both literally and metaphorically. No clean water, no sanitation, high infant mortality, plague, famine. But there are evil wizards who can throw fire at you?

Great.
 

Entitled

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Aug 27, 2012
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If you demand magic, magic won't help.

I was pondering the philosophy of fantasy stories, and it occurred to me that if there were actually dragons in our world?if you could go down to the zoo, or even to a distant mountain, and meet a fire-breathing dragon?while nobody had ever actually seen a zebra, then our fantasy stories would contain zebras aplenty, while dragons would be unexciting.

Now that's what I call painting yourself into a corner, wot? The grass is always greener on the other side of unreality.

In one of the standard fantasy plots, a protagonist from our Earth, a sympathetic character with lousy grades or a crushing mortgage but still a good heart, suddenly finds themselves in a world where magic operates in place of science. The protagonist often goes on to practice magic, and become in due course a (superpowerful) sorcerer.

Now here's the question?and yes, it is a little unkind, but I think it needs to be asked: Presumably most readers of these novels see themselves in the protagonist's shoes, fantasizing about their own acquisition of sorcery. Wishing for magic. And, barring improbable demographics, most readers of these novels are not scientists.

Born into a world of science, they did not become scientists. What makes them think that, in a world of magic, they would act any differently?

If they don't have the scientific attitude, that nothing is "mere"?the capacity to be interested in merely real things?how will magic help them? If they actually had magic, it would be merely real, and lose the charm of unattainability. They might be excited at first, but (like the lottery winners who, six months later, aren't nearly as happy as they expected to be), the excitement would soon wear off. Probably as soon as they had to actually study spells.

Unless they can find the capacity to take joy in things that are merely real. To be just as excited by hang-gliding, as riding a dragon; to be as excited by making a light with electricity, as by making a light with magic... even if it takes a little study...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not dissing dragons. Who knows, we might even create some, one of these days.

But if you don't have the capacity to enjoy hang-gliding even though it is merely real, then as soon as dragons turn real, you're not going to be any more excited by dragons than you are by hang-gliding.

Do you think you would prefer living in the Future, to living in the present? That's a quite understandable preference. Things do seem to be getting better over time.

But don't forget that this is the Future, relative to the Dark Ages of a thousand years earlier. You have opportunities undreamt-of even by kings.

If the trend continues, the Future might be a very fine place indeed in which to live. But if you do make it to the Future, what you find, when you get there, will be another Now. If you don't have the basic capacity to enjoy being in a Now?if your emotional energy can only go into the Future, if you can only hope for a better tomorrow?then no amount of passing time can help you.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/ou/if_you_demand_magic_magic_wont_help/
 

Thaluikhain

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Entitled said:
If you demand magic, magic won't help.

I was pondering the philosophy of fantasy stories, and it occurred to me that if there were actually dragons in our world?if you could go down to the zoo, or even to a distant mountain, and meet a fire-breathing dragon?while nobody had ever actually seen a zebra, then our fantasy stories would contain zebras aplenty, while dragons would be unexciting.

Now that's what I call painting yourself into a corner, wot? The grass is always greener on the other side of unreality.

In one of the standard fantasy plots, a protagonist from our Earth, a sympathetic character with lousy grades or a crushing mortgage but still a good heart, suddenly finds themselves in a world where magic operates in place of science. The protagonist often goes on to practice magic, and become in due course a (superpowerful) sorcerer.

Now here's the question?and yes, it is a little unkind, but I think it needs to be asked: Presumably most readers of these novels see themselves in the protagonist's shoes, fantasizing about their own acquisition of sorcery. Wishing for magic. And, barring improbable demographics, most readers of these novels are not scientists.

Born into a world of science, they did not become scientists. What makes them think that, in a world of magic, they would act any differently?

If they don't have the scientific attitude, that nothing is "mere"?the capacity to be interested in merely real things?how will magic help them? If they actually had magic, it would be merely real, and lose the charm of unattainability. They might be excited at first, but (like the lottery winners who, six months later, aren't nearly as happy as they expected to be), the excitement would soon wear off. Probably as soon as they had to actually study spells.

Unless they can find the capacity to take joy in things that are merely real. To be just as excited by hang-gliding, as riding a dragon; to be as excited by making a light with electricity, as by making a light with magic... even if it takes a little study...

Don't get me wrong. I'm not dissing dragons. Who knows, we might even create some, one of these days.

But if you don't have the capacity to enjoy hang-gliding even though it is merely real, then as soon as dragons turn real, you're not going to be any more excited by dragons than you are by hang-gliding.

Do you think you would prefer living in the Future, to living in the present? That's a quite understandable preference. Things do seem to be getting better over time.

But don't forget that this is the Future, relative to the Dark Ages of a thousand years earlier. You have opportunities undreamt-of even by kings.

If the trend continues, the Future might be a very fine place indeed in which to live. But if you do make it to the Future, what you find, when you get there, will be another Now. If you don't have the basic capacity to enjoy being in a Now?if your emotional energy can only go into the Future, if you can only hope for a better tomorrow?then no amount of passing time can help you.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/ou/if_you_demand_magic_magic_wont_help/
There's a lot of truth in that, though I disagree about the Future. A person who is unhappy because of specific issues now might well be happier if they'd been born later. Fancy toys won't make them happy, but technological or social progress might have eliminated problems that they currently face.
 

Jesterscup

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"Any sufficiently advanced form of magic is indistinguishable from technology" - 7th Doctor
 

Thaluikhain

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Jesterscup said:
"Any sufficiently advanced form of magic is indistinguishable from technology" - 7th Doctor
To extend it some other ways, we have this:


The last is particularly relevant, I feel. Magic is what we call something we personally don't understand, or expect to.