Technology

[Belle_Starr_777 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20261

There's a quote in the science fiction realms -- I don't remember the 
exact wording and speaker -- but I want to say it was Isaac Asimov.

"Any sufficiiently adavanced form of technology is indistinguishable 
from magic."

Can anyone put a name to this?

I love this line. It's true! It's true!

Belle, who probably would remember more had she not drank so much 
Swill and Turbo Lag during the conventions.


--- In HPforGrownups at y..., joym999 at a... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., rcraigharman at h... wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Milz" <absinthe at m...> wrote:
> > > Could be. Maybe Dumbledore is privy to Magical/Muggle genetic
> > > studies that imply Muggles are really Squibs.
> > 
> > Somehow, a culture that doesn't use "eckeltricity" doesn't strike
> > me as prime ground for having done genetic research.  On the other
> > hand, genealogical research seems to be the kind of thing that
> > would fit in well -- heir of Slytherin and all that stuff....
> > 
> 
> Wizards don't use electricity for a very good reason -- they don't 
> need it, in fact they don't need our technology at all (except 
maybe 
> for sherbet lemons).  Modern muggle technology, according to 
wizards, 
> is a (poor) substitute for magic.  And modern muggle technology is 
> largely based on the availability of cheap, efficient energy 
sources, 
> especially electricity.
> 
> But wizards can create their own energy.  This, IMO, is one of the 
> most significant differences between muggles and wizards.  Why mine 
> coal, build power plants and power lines and thousands of devices, 
> create vast amounts of pollution, and endanger the future of the 
> planet thru global warming, if you can light hundreds of candles 
with 
> a flick of the wrist?
> 
> Wizards have their own sort of technologies.  They are constantly 
> improving and refining magical objects.  The history of the 
> broomstick, as explained in QTTA, makes this clear. And several 
> people have noticed the similarities between the kind of logic that 
> goes into creating a magical item such as the Marauder's Map and 
the 
> kind of logic that goes into writing a computer program.  They are 
> simply different types of technologies, and one is not necessarily 
> superior to the other.
> 
> I have studied the history and development of technology and many 
of 
> the devices we use have as much to do with cultural preferences and 
> historical accidents as anything else.  Different technologies 
> develop for different reasons at different times.  Many cultures 
> independently invented the wheel, for example, and many of them 
> rejected it because their geographic conditions made it unsuitable 
> for use in a transportation device.
> 
> I think wizards do plenty of research.  That's why they need 
> publications like the "Journal of Transfiguration" (I think that's 
> what it's called.)  They just research different stuff than muggles 
> do because they have different needs, just like the Mayans stopped 
> researching the wheel because they lived in a mountainous region at 
> the same time Europeans were developing wheeled vehicles.
> 
> So, if wizards need to know about genetics, they are likely to be   
> researching it.  They might not need it though, since genetic 
> research is primarily done within the field of medicine, and wizard 
> medical science is clearly a lot different that ours.
> 
> --Joywitch