From:	Jani Fikouras <feanor@**********.UNI-BREMEN.DE>
Subject:	Re: SR's Magic System!
Date:	Fri, 9 Jun 1995 14:51:06 +0200

> > The ways of WYTIWYG are long and mysterious :) To be honest I
> > invented the term a couple of months ago to explain the behaviour of
> > insect-spirits (bugger and I hate acronyms :) and since then the term
> > has, through Janni's excellent posts about it, become a bit of a
> > catch-all term.
> > I think that WYTIWYG does not cover the magic system of SR
> > completely, but it surely is an important part of it. On reading NAGA
> > (or NAGM) the feeling is only strenghtened. But underlaying the
> > WYTIWYG theory is a system of defined rules of what is possible and
> > what is not.

> I haven't read NAGM but if they are turning more to the WYBIWYG theory
> then that seems to be moving away from the Magic comes from the control
> of astral energies -not a person's will, that magicians are determined by
> genetics etc. WYBIWYG does have its place, but SR magic seems to be less
> WYBIWYG, as defined by FASA, and if FASA are altering that, they might be
> heading to a more Mage:The Ascension viewpoint :(

They are not moving away from anything, WYTIWYG is nothing new or
revolutionary. Imagine magic as a whole as the Harware at your disposal
(the hardware represents here the maximum potential). And then imagine your
own worldview as the Software (the software is the potential left over when
the operating system is through with the hardware).

No matter how powerfull a hardware you got, the end performance is
defined by your software. Different kinds of software can concievably
manage to get more performance out of the same hardware. Lets take
DOS and Linux as an example.

They both utilise the same hardware (the sum of the magical potential)
and they both represent radically different worldviews (mindsets/traditions).
Linux has multiuser/multitasking facilities, and DOS has not. Linux does
lotsa cool and nifty stuff that are irrlevant right now and DOS sucks bigtime.
Yet they both use exactly the same hardware, you cant have both operating
systems on your harddrive and alternataly boot one or the other.

(Hope this wasnt too technical)

Now WYTIWYG sez that a user using one of those two OSs will always
have the illusion that the performance he is geting out of his machine
is the maximum potential. A DOS user for example will never understand
what multi-tasking is all about and he can never possinly learn to
apreciate it (or believe that it exists for our purposes), because his OS
(worldview) does not support it. He is destined to live his life in
a single tasking environment. Period (didnt mean to go DOS bashing, sory
if I hurt anyones feelings :)

BUT this does not mean that the hardware isnt capable of supporting
a totally different OS (better or worst).

WYTIWYG sez that our perception of magic is just an OS running on
a hardware. The hardware is HARD, its there FOREVER - but software
is SOFT, MALEABLE and its depends from the user (magician).

--
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W(+)(---) M-- !V(--) -po+(---) Y+ t++ 5++ R+++ tv b++ e+ u++(-) f+ r- n!(-) y?

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