"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
[ something that he completely believed. there was no such thing as the supernatural. ghosts and psychics are completely scientific, ok? ]
No possession was involved. While I'm sure there's probably spirits lurking somewhere, the creature just produced a toxin that sent anyone in the vicinity into a state of extreme emotion.
[ unfortunately, he can vouch completely for its potency. ]
Indistinguishable, perhaps, but that does not make them the same thing.
Where I come from, technology and magic have coexisted, but it is only recently that the former has been able to replicate what may be done by the latter. An airplane and an enchanted flying carpet may both fly, but that does not mean they are doing the same thing.
But, they both follow the same basic laws. For example, if someone's able to communicate with the dead, would you call that magic? Or just a form of psychic energy.
[ though maybe it's more insistent terminology than anything else. ]
The phrase says that advanced technology might be mistaken for magic. To one from five hundred years ago, an airplane and a flying carpet might seem to be doing the exact same thing.
It doesn't say that all magic is really science. The carpet and the airplane are doing different things.
They work a different way, but a flying carpet could just as easily be manipulated by psychic energy. Just like if I end up seeing a spirit around here, that would be ESP. Just because we don't fully understand how something works, that doesn't make it magic.
[ but seriously... it's just the principle of the thing. ]
[Okay, hang on. She turns more to face him.] What's the difference, in your eyes? I'm not seeing the rather arbitrary distinction you mean to be making. Whether you call the force holding the carpet aloft psychic energy or magic energy, it's still acting outside the laws of commonly understood physics.
What would something have to do, in your mind, to be truly considered "magic"?
Personally, I believe that everything has an explanation, as strange as it might be. As to magic, some people are just born with different abilities than others.
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[ something that he completely believed. there was no such thing as the supernatural.
ghosts and psychics are completely scientific, ok?]No possession was involved. While I'm sure there's probably spirits lurking somewhere, the creature just produced a toxin that sent anyone in the vicinity into a state of extreme emotion.
[ unfortunately, he can vouch completely for its potency. ]
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Where I come from, technology and magic have coexisted, but it is only recently that the former has been able to replicate what may be done by the latter. An airplane and an enchanted flying carpet may both fly, but that does not mean they are doing the same thing.
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[ though maybe it's more insistent terminology than anything else. ]
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[ source: his dad is a psychic ghost. ]
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To be honest, it seems like a completely arbitrary line to me.
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[ regardless... ]
Once you understand anything, the mystery becomes just a little bit clearer.
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The phrase says that advanced technology might be mistaken for magic. To one from five hundred years ago, an airplane and a flying carpet might seem to be doing the exact same thing.
It doesn't say that all magic is really science. The carpet and the airplane are doing different things.
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[ but seriously... it's just the principle of the thing. ]
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What would something have to do, in your mind, to be truly considered "magic"?
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[ and that's all there is to it. ]