| From: | Erik Jameson <erikj@****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Prometheus Unbound (was Re: Astral Magic) |
| Date: | Wed, 20 May 1998 14:54:57 -0400 |
>><< 6th worlds magical beliefs originates from the 5th world beliefs of
>> magic. Scientific theory does not affect this. And the old ways are still
>> the foundation of current magic research for the Hermetics still seeking
>> to understand this new world. >>
>>
>>Yes, but what about science fiction theory? That's still what space fold
is.
>
> Has no effect on magic. That's what I was saying.
As much as I hate to step up in opposition to you MC23, and as much as I
hate it when people try to interject too much science into their magic
("Hey, my new spell is a Meson Beam!"...dork...), I've gotta do it.
You are both right, at least to a certain degree. Much of magic theory to
date in RL has little grounding in modern science (we do have to remember,
though, that hundreds of years ago science and magic was one and the same,
i.e. alchemy).
However, you've got to remember that a cross-pollination of ideas and
concepts ala the Renaissance would be occuring, or on the verge of occuring
within the world of SR. The *science* of magic is not isolated nor would
it be exclusively concerned with moldy old tomes.
I think you'd also have to remember that when magic returned, you'd have a
whole lot of people trying to quantify it and make it a hard science just
as physics. I'm sure a fair number of hermetics see it just that way.
I'd also be willing to be that the number of "Double Domes" as the Grimmy
calls them would be increasing, those individuals with a strong footing in
both magical theory and some physical science or other (likely physics I
would think).
So in the end, I strongly believe that you'd have a pretty good amount of
information filtering back and forth across academia, with people trying
ideas from differing fields and seeing if they work in magic theory. I can
easily imagine some white lab coated supernerd wondering if that physics
paper on space folding could possibly work using magic, and trying to meld
what he knows of physics with what he knows of magic. It might simply be
an exercise in futility, but I can see it being thought of.
You have similar sorts of things happening in our modern world, and it's
one of the main reasons there is this intense feeling of massive change
going on, when in reality it's just a horde of tiny changes all of which
are interacting and cross-pollinating.
Erik J.
"What was that popping sound?"
"A paradigm shifting without a clutch."
