--- In snorkack@..., "Bryan Tait" <bryan_m_tait@y...>
wrote:
JK herself has unwittingly laid the foundations for the interaction
of
Magic and Technology by stating that Electronic devices wont work
within high magic area's like Hogwarts. Theirby indicating that they
are not totally seperate entitiies but connected in some way.
I personally like the idea of Technomancy the merging of Magic and
Technology into something that combines the best of both worlds. It
allows for a way to begin to reconcile the two worlds, The Magical
and
the Muggle by providing a third path that is a mixture of the two.
The way I've been looking at it is this: Technology depends on things
happening the same way every time. Electrons have to behave the same
way consistently in order for electronics to work. Magic is the
ability to make things happen differently (like Wingardium Leviosa
making something fall up). You're messing with probabilities on a
quantum level and performing massive changes in the way things should
happen. Unless they are damaged outright, simple machines like steam
engines won't be hurt by magic going off in their vicinity. Pick a
plow up, move it over, put it down, it won't be hurt. However,
electronics depend on much smaller things and much finer tolerances
for things going wrong. If you Wingardium Leviosa a cell phone, it's
not only going to lift the phone, but it's going to lift some of the
electrons out of the places they were and drop them back into places
they shouldn't be. Which is not good for the cell phone, and if you
do it enough times, it's going to disrupt the flow of electricity,
corrupt the memory, and fry the electronics. Same things with digital
watches, computers, and so forth. Eventually they will stop working.
So magic and technology are inherently in opposition - one depends on
things happening the same way all the time, the other depends on
things happening differently in accordance with the will of the spell
caster. A sufficiently advanced technology might be able to control
the differences on a quantum level, and it is possible that magic
might be developed to protect electronics, but at that point magic and
technology have become indistinguishable. And then you've got
Quidditch games between the kids on brooms and the ones with jet
packs, and Hogwarts is just another school specializing in a
particular technology called magic (which is actually going to be the
ending point, 100 years or so down the pike, of my major story).
Dorothy
