Subject: Re: [FFML]A theory: Magic and Technology
From: "The Reverend Prez" <cannady@magiccarpet.com>
Date: 3/5/1998, 2:48 PM
To: fanfic@fanfic.com
Reply-to:
cannady@magiccarpet.com

On  5 Mar 98 -itlon at 16:37 -itlon, Alandra said-itlon:

Does the presense of magic inhibit technology?  For surely, necessity is
the mother of invention, and who needs to invent anything when you can
summon your local wizard?  

Why should it?  After all, if I were to introduce a sufficiently advanced 
enough technology to a primitive culture, then those aborigines may perceive 
it to be magic.  It's all a matter of perception, and whether that perception 
extends to metaphysical world or to the technological leap from the wheel and 
lever to the pulley and resultant complex machines is not the issue.

As for the necessity, one may sum it up like this.  Magic, in most fantasy 
novels, is not a mass-produced affair.  The appropiate analogy in "reality" 
may be the transition from highly specialized bands of mercenaries serving as 
the military might of a single feudal lord to the foot soldiers and standing 
armies of viable governments.  A wizard is a highly trained, incredibly 
specialized (or, more likely, an incredibly special) individual; the catapult 
technology, on the other hand, can be taught with relative ease (after one 
has achieved a basic mastery over the even easier concepts of preceding 
simple machines), and the resources to produce them are widely available.  
The result is a cost-effective alternative.

But when, I think, the magic is extremely limited to few people, as in
the Belgariad, technology does advance.  Now you could cite L.E.
Modesitt's Reluce and the Magical Engineer, and yeah, I guess that's an
exception.  Consider, though, Xanth.  Everyone has some magic power, or
properties.  They thought cars were dragons, for crissake!  You wouldn't
call them tech advanced, or for that matter, advancing.  Why when they
can just go to the Good Magician?  

Agree, disagree, modifications?

Precisely--the difference between a "pre"-technological and "a"-technological 
society lies in the need for high technology.  Pretechnology cultures have 
yet to advance up the tool-using ladder, while atechnological cultures have 
developed a successful alternative to high technology; or, they may have 
placed limitations or outright forbade the permeation of technological 
advances into their societies.  The latter is a more frequent example from 
our history, from the Ming Dynasty's disasterous cuts in their naval forces 
(turning Asia into a power vacuum sucking in invaders by the scores) to the 
Ottoman Empire.  Normally, atechnological societies diminish and eventually 
fade into obscurity.  However, a society might survive if it hypothetically 
acquired a means to flourish without technological advancement; this serves 
as a basis for many fantasy novels embracing a wide-spread proliferation of 
magic and magic users, as well as races exhibiting telepathic and 
telekinetic talents.

-The Reverend Prez
*  *  *

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