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Magic is real, we just know how it works and call it technology

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Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨showerthoughts@lemmy.world⁩

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  • TabbsTheBat@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I saw something once along the lines of “if there was a novel where they harnessed a magical force that was thought to come from the sky, and it was used for everything, like powering devices that keep food fresh, and long distance communication, and said the majority of people had no idea of how it worked we’d call it lazy writing, but that’s just a description of electricity” paraphrased a bit, but ye :3

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    • Bgugi@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Plus we can imbue crystals with thought and knowledge by inscribing them with complex runes and commanding them in a special language.

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      • grue@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Main difference is that, in fiction, the “imbuing” doesn’t require a billion-dollar fab.

        I mean, there are a few intrepid techno-wizards trying to don’t themselves, but it’s a far cry from what Big Magic can manage.

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      • Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        We used lightning to trick rocks into thinking.

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    • Deebster@infosec.pub ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I saw one comment and was sure it’d be the Arthur C. Clarke quote. I like your one, I hadn’t seen it before.

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    • Bags@piefed.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Give the book Ra by Qntm a read lol

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  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Software is the closest thing we have to magic spells. You need to know the correct “activation words” and make sure they follow the correct order. If that aligns, your magic spell works; suddenly there’s something on the screen that just wasn’t there before. Congratulations, you completed your first summoning.

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    • ConstantPain@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      And the magic words are powered by magic stones that we write certain sigils in it to make it think.

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      • ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Don’t forget to hit the sigils with lightning

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    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Me when I draw ritual sigils in silicon to summon demons that mimic the speech of humans to decieve us (I asked ChatGPT for spaghetti recipes)

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    • Zoomboingding@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I cast Alexa Play Back To The Jungle By Michael Guy Bowman

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    • lost_faith@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Techno-mages enter the chat

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    • MarriedCavelady50@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      lol no. Software is just a written form of logic.

      Writing incomprehensible hexes onto stone wafers then harnessing lightning to make them think is where it is at.

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      • littleomid@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Have you read SICP?

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  • KingArnulf@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    As Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

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    • nailingjello@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Came here expecting someone to have posted this quote, was not disappointed.

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    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I think the MCU of all places summed this up perfectly and I think it was in Thor: The Dark World where Jane has fuck knows what and they operate on her in Asgard and she’s giving medical terms and they’re like “WTF just hook her up to the whoziwhatzhit and she’ll be fine.”

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Magic, by definition, is supernatural. If you know how it works it’s not supernatural … thus not magic.

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    • ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Show a sentinelese person a smartphone, they’re gonna say it’s magic.

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        I wouldn’t count on it.

        Most people don’t understand how most technologies work, but they still don’t call it magic. We know that someone understands how it works, because they build it. I’m pretty sure the Sentinelese are capable of understanding that concept as well.

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    • MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Does that mean Eda the Owl Lady was wrong to call her spells magic?

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      • remon@ani.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        It’s not a character I’m familiar with, sorry.

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    What if magic was real, but required speaking actual magic words and we just haven’t figured out the right words?

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    • aubeynarf@lemmynsfw.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      or if it required the appropriately complex sexy dance with pronounced hip thrusts?

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      • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        “I’m gonna cast a spell of insanity!”

        does the Time Warp

        “Oh no! That pelvic thrust is really driving me insaaaaaaaane!”

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    • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Psychopaths have figured out how to manipulate, or cast a charm spell on people. That’s pretty magical to me. Those are still words, so I’m going to count them as magic words.

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    • mang0@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      What if humans are actually remotely controlled by small alien ants?

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  • yermaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I like the idea that there is a God, hes just the programmer of our simulation. Magic was real, in the form of exploitable glitches, and got patched out as time went on.

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  • MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I vaguely remember a quote about magic that can apply to anything. Someone taking something ordinary, and doing something extra ordinary with it.

    A deck of cards isn’t magic, but what the person DOES with it can be magical. Same with amusician and a musical instrument , or a writer with a pen and paper.

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  • cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    ILLUSIONS

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  • themurphy@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Fire, electricty, gravity and magnetism is magic, and you cant convince me otherwise.

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  • DarkAri@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Technology deals with mostly physical things, magic is mostly non physical. This isn’t some official definition just a better one. Real magic doesn’t deal with matter or energy in the ways most people are familiar with it.

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  • mhague@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I think it’s magic how the sum time sunk into a thing can be greater than the time it took to make the thing.

    It’s magic when 20 hours goes into a painting and it generates (5 minutes * 300) worth of emotions.

    It took Tolkein more energy / emotion to make LotR than I’m willing to give appreciating it. But everyone combined has certainly outweighed what Tolkein put in. It’s magic to me to think of “free” “emotion hours”.

    Everything else is so… crass. Transactional. A battery that holds X energy means the sum energy people can extract would be X at best. I have 7 hotdogs and so at most 7 people can each have one.

    But art? Games? Puzzles? It’s magic how there’s basically infinite energy inside.

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    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I think it’s magic how the sum time sunk into a thing can be greater than the time it took to make the thing.

      It’s magic when 20 hours goes into a painting and it generates (5 minutes * 300) worth of emotions.

      This is why I like music. I’m not spending 100 hours to make something someone will look at for 10 seconds.

      I played this guitar part for 5 mins? You listen to it for 5 mins. (creation time may be multiplied by fuckups and overdubs/additional tracks)

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  • DreamAccountant@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Magic was never real. It was technology all along.

    People were incredibly stupid when the churches didn’t allow education for the masses.

    A Yo-Yo would have made you a magician. It’s not a magical feeling to be worshipped by idiots for knowing how a Yo-Yo works. It’s just sad.

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  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I kindof agree but I’d phrase it the other way round: people always tended to call things they don’t understand Magic.

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    • maniclucky@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      The inverse of Clark’s saying: sufficiently explained magic of indistinguishable from science (credit: Girl Genius webcomic)

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    sucky magic. Well until we have transporters and replicators.

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  • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Yes to the former no the latter.

    norse-mythology.org/concepts/magic/

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  • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    People look into space and say “I don’t see God” like bro- you see objects so huge and so far apart we measure their distance in the time it takes light to travel between them and us- what were you expecting to see?

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  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Belief in magic is kind of hard to define, anthropologically—we tend to call anything that contradicts currently-known laws of physics “magic”, but that makes the term contingent on the observer’s knowledge rather than the believer’s. (For instance, things like astrology and alchemy that we regard as magic now were thought to be the result of natural forces in the Middle Ages.)

    I would call magic the belief that there are multiple, independent systems of causality, whether you fully understand those systems or not.

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