[HPforGrownups] WW Technology V Muggle Technology

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 100686

Stephen Flynn wrote:
>This is my first post so please bear with me.  I was looking through
>some back postings and I saw one on the above topic and I do believe
>that WW technology is better than Muggle technology.  Simply put why
>fix something that is not broken.  There is less risk to an
>individual and to the environment.  Does anyone have an opinion on
>this?

I also saw the original post and was a little surprised that no one else
bit!

My first comment is that the WW wouldn't understand the word "technology"
here: it's not so much a matter of two different technologies, but of
fundamentally different approaches to the same need. In the WW, wizards use
charms, potions, spells, and so on to carry out the relevant processes of
production for which Muggles use technology. For a wizard to be interested
in technology (as Arthur Weasley so obviously is), would I think make him
regarded by his colleagues as being somewhat eccentric (perhaps in the same
way as Muggle colleagues would regard a workmate who was obviously
interested in witchcraft in our own world...)

I also don't think that the WW "sits more lightly on the Earth" or anything
like that. Approaching production from a wizarding POV would mean different
approaches, but neither would necessarily be "ecological" in a way that's
meaningful for us. If I'm an eel farmer in the WW, I'd probably use a charm
rather than a fence to stop them swimming off to the Sargasso Sea at
spawning time, and I'd probably use a potion rather than something from a
laboratory to keep them healthy, but they'd still be caged and bred rather
than swimming free in the wild.

But having said all that, there do seem to be advantages in using magic
rather than technology. First of all, using charms and spells seems to
remove a great deal of the drudgery and hard labour that Muggles have to
use. I would think that a WW miner would use charms to open the rock strata
down to the ore, to extract the ore and bring it to the surface, to smelt
it, and to return the spoil to the tunnel when the mine was worked out: no
need for heavy labour, much reduced risk of dying in a rockfall, no risk of
lung diseases, nystagmus, or any of the other mining diseases, and so on.

Also, the inhabitants of the WW do seem to be in occupations that aren't
exploitative or useless. There doesn't seem to be any WW equivalent of
MacDonalds, call centres, nuclear power stations, or any of the other
atrocities of our own world. On the whole, I think I'd rather be a worker
there than here!

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri