Identifying with Muggles: Magic & Science in the World

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 158312

--- , "Ken Hutchinson" <klhutch at ...> wrote:
 
> > bboyminn:
> > 
> > Fair point but one doesn't necessarily eliminate the 
> > other. The brain is a electical instrument that is 
> > suprebly insulated. For example, when your TV 
> > reception  suddenly goes staticy, ... your brain 
> > doesn't go all staticy.
> 
> Ken:
> 
> No, your brain doesn't. Neither does your computer, your
> wristwatch, your blender, your automobile, your (insert 
> a multitude of electronic devices here). ...
>

bboyminn:

I'm really trying to let this go since we are not that 
much out of sync with each other, but I can't.

My point was simply that the brain is a much more 
resilient and more superbly insulated device that any 
common muggle electrical or electronic device, and that 
is true. 

Likely most electrical and electronic devices will be 
shut down by the EMF blast from a air-burst nuclear bomb.
Yet, most humans in the zone of EMF blast will survive 
the electical interference, assuming they are not in the
direct in the zone of direct heat and blast impact.

Even if you can find a reason to shoot that illustration
down, it does not change the fact that the human brain
is immensely resistant to outside electical interference.
Far more so than any common electrical device


> Ken:
> 
> ... The MRI machine itself is one big electronic device
> with some very sophisticated signal processing equipment
> as well as one or more computers and *it* isn't 
> disrupted by the large magnetic fields it generates. 
> 

bboyminn:

Yes, but that equipment and those computers are not IN 
the MRI machine. The field of magnetism is concentrated
with the center of the MRI scanning field. 

> Ken:
>
> In any event Hogwarts is not protected by NMR 
> technology, we'd see all kinds of weird magnetic 
> effects on metal objects at the school if it were. ...


bboyminn:

Note I said the simple flow of electrical current 
probably /would/ work. That should implis that simple 
forms of magnetism would also work. It's just sensitive
electronic and electrical devices that would have a 
problem.

Also note that while magic may effect electrical fields, 
as JKR has specifically said, it is not itself 
necessarily an electical field. We can't know the full 
nature and actions of magic, therefore we really can not 
predict it's action in the framework of modern science.
We can only take what the author tells us and assume that
there is some fiction-world scientific explanation for it
that would be parallelled in our real world.

If you have read the continuation of Ender's Game, then
you know that friends of Ender concieve of a method of
faster than lightspeed travel that makes sense within
their framework and explanation, but outside that frame-
work, in the real world, it is extremely unlikely, but
again, in their world when they explain it, it makes
perfect sense. Further, they are able to actually 
impliment it. For fans, two new books that continue the
Ender and Bean storylines are planned.


> Ken:
> 
> I prefer to think that the magic operates on the 
> student's brains to make them think these devices don't
> work just as the Muggles see a rubble pile where 
> Hogwarts is. ...
> 

bboyminn:

Sorry, but it seems as if you are saying it is just an
illusion. While some aspects of magic are of an 
illusionary nature, this interference with electronic
devices doesn't seem to fit the bill. IMHO.

> 
> Ken:
> 
> ...
> 
> I agree that the magic in the WW functions as a 
> technology and in fact *is* a technology. It is so 
> easy to use that most wizards and witches have little
> understanding of how it works. ...
>

bboyminn:

Well, we are straying off topic now, but I certainly 
agree with you. It wasn't that long ago when backyard
mechanics were literally building their own engines. I 
mean sand casting the blocks and everything. Yet, today
most people know how to turn the key and make it go, but
beyond that are completely lost. Many people drive a car,
far fewer can fix a car, many many many fewer can build a
car, and virtually no one can create one from scratch. 
But there very easily could come a time when your life
depends on that very skill.

I think how many city people I know who can't even 
conceive of how to change a flat tire, and think nothing
of it. I don't see how people can live so blindly and
vulnerably. 

> Ken:
> 
>... If magic were revealed to Muggle scientists I don't
> think it would take 500 years. Maybe as much as 50. 
> 

bboyminn:

Again, I doubt 50 years. That could only happen if some
scientist is able to conceive of the idea that magic is
real and set out to prove it. As long as people continue
to believe it is NOT real, just the stuff of fairytales,
then they have no hope of discovering it.

Just a few somewhat pointless thoughts.

And for the record, I have a B.S. in Electronics 
Engineering Technology, so I'm not exactly a stranger to
science.

Steve/bboyminn