Iron man and other Marvel movies started being very science. Oriented, but quickly combined magic or turned to magic
Do you think a story that mixes magic with super advanced technology can work?
Submitted 10 months ago by Hickak@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
AA5B@lemmy.world 10 months ago
half@lemy.lol 10 months ago
Clarke’s Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Bhaelfur@lemmy.world 10 months ago
The second Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson gets close. It’s a setting where magic meets wild west tech, including guns, cars, and electricity.
I’ve heard that his next trilogy in the setting will have more of an 1980s tech level.
A couple of Sanderson’s short stories touch on space ships, computers, and magic.
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
The Sunlit Man is even more tech combined with magic. Read that one yet?
What other books do you like in that genre? I loved Mistborn/Cosmere realm and Powder Mage series.
Albbi@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
The Sunlit Man was so good. I love books that have fast pacing right from the start, and trying to figure out how the world worked was so much fun.
Glide@lemmy.ca 10 months ago
In any other setting, when we take specific, tiny stones and carve patterns into them until they can perform tasks for us, we call it magic.
sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
The Psalms of Isaac series did this very well at the beginning – starts off with a magic fantasy land but as you read you realize that there were forebearers with immense science and technology, and weaves a conflict between the two.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Yep
Nemo@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Like most things by Philip K. Dick, the man who has more movies based on his writing than any other author?
theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yes and it sounds cool as hell
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
There’s a ton of examples, so yeah.
My home brew ttrpg setting is exactly that
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 10 months ago
That’s prevalent in the Might and Magic series. But (probably depending on the game) the high technology is often hidden from the common folk.
etchinghillside@reddthat.com 10 months ago
Yup.
Mikina@programming.dev 10 months ago
Shadowrun kind of does the same. It’s not really super-advanced, since it’s cyberpunk, but it’s cyberpunk with magic. And it’s my favorite setting, it’s such a cool idea.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 months ago
A lot of cyberpunk tech is vastly beyond our current abilities, though. They treat getting a new fully functional cybernetic arm like we treat getting silicone tits.
capuccino@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It is called Star Wars, and it is one of the many reasons why I do not like it.
BCOVertigo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
What about it specifically do you dislike? This type of setting definitely invites questioning by the audience and can break immersion, but I’m curious about your take on it.
capuccino@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I think this is the greater unpopular opinion I have, but here I go: It’s something more personal rater than anything. Since child I’ve always fund kinda stupid that a civilization that has ships with space travel capabilities still using swords to fight sigh LASER swords. I always felt Star Wars like a mediaval story, it have swords, magic, incest, politics, and the sci-fi stuff is a big flex tape. I’m pretty sure that without it, Star Wars wouldn’t never be the success that it is.
lordnikon@lemmy.world 10 months ago
A sequel to Arcanum that moves the timeline forward into the information age?
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
God I wish we had gotten more than one Arcanum game…
lordnikon@lemmy.world 10 months ago
With out Tim it would never be the same even if the rights were not in limbo
BCOVertigo@lemmy.world 10 months ago
In dungeons and dragons there is a type of hybrid character you can play called an Artificer who treats magic more like technology, anf there are a ton of examples in popular media that others have mentioned. I do think you have to determine how and if you’ll keep them distinct if that’s important to your plot, but if they developed alongside eachother maybe the technology of that world relies on magic to work.
Or maybe your magoc relies on elder gods that don’t like the mortal hubris of critiquing the gods works so attempts to unravel magic gets you cursed or worse.
I think they can go together and the way you fit them can even become a plot point!
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 10 months ago
Came here to mention this. Good reference, and chummer.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 months ago
Why wouldn’t it work?
jasoman@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Starship mage also did it well.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Super advanced technology is magic. Hell, regular advanced technology is magic. Just run with it.
Notamoosen@lemmy.zip 10 months ago
I think the MCU has done a good job with it, but I’d like to see a non-superhero version of it.
runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
There’s a Netflix movie called Bright, which is futuristic fantasy.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Star Wars
In the ‘advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ there is John Carter, Dune and a ton of other movies where the tech seems like magic.
ccunning@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Like Star Wars?
Libra@lemmy.ml 10 months ago
Star Wars doesn’t really do ‘super advanced technology’. Like they’ve got space ships and hyperdrive and laser swords and shit, but they don’t treat it like high-tech stuff, they treat it like we treat cars and swords.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 10 months ago
People in 2025 don’t really do ‘super advanced technology’. Like they’ve got super powerful handheld computers on them at all times and all of human knowledge accessible at all times and planes and shit, but they don’t treat it like high-tech stuff, they treat it like we treat carriages and books.
Nibodhika@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Any universe where they have super advanced tech they’ll treat it like we treat cars, because cars are also super advanced tech, it’s just a tech you see daily and are familiar. How do you expect characters in a super technologically advanced world to react? They see that every day, it’s not news to them.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 10 months ago
It’s still high tech if it’s vastly beyond our current technological ability.
floo@retrolemmy.com 10 months ago
The whole design aesthetic of the Star Wars universe is a state of technological stagnation. They all have advanced technology, but it could be more advanced, however, for whatever reason, they haven’t bothered to make any but minor advancements in a very long time.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Dune as well.
Warhammer 40k
Yeah, there are a lot of examples out there.
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 10 months ago
Star ocean, some final Fantasy, psychics in starship troopers
Sort of dr who? At least the time lords regenerating
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Tbf, in Dune all the “magic-y” bits get “scientific” explanations. I suppose you could argue the same with Star Wars and midichlorians.
cattywampas@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Wizards and spaceships? It’ll never work.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Spelljammer was a late 80s cocaine-fueled fever dream.
Alice@hilariouschaos.com 10 months ago
Yes.
otacon239@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Artemis Fowl is a classic example of this. The fantasy world of fairies relies on super advanced technology in their world.