December 07, 2008
Clark's Third Law, Corollary
Clark's Third Law: Any Sufficiently Advanced Technology is Indistinguishable from Magic.
Niven, and others, state as a corollary: Any Sufficiently Advanced Magic is Indistinguishable from Technology.
However, this isn't quite true. With technology we, or someone, knows HOW it works, even if the lower technological people view it as magic. Magicians, however, are more of the trial and error and what works without knowing the whys and wherefores, hence it's Magic! Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaches HOW to do magic, but doesn't delve into the underlying principles.
The Foglios have created the Girl Genius Universe, where Mad Science rules. Mad science is taught at the Transylvania Polygnostic University -- it is SCIENCE, where the underlying principles are known, if slightly warped. The Foglios, through their comic character Agatha Hetrodyne, Girl Genuis, have properly stated the corollary:
Once you have ANALYZED the magic and understand the underlying principles it then indistinguishable from Science and Technology.
(this is my wallpaper, not for others as I has to wait until I have the dead tree version so I can scan at high resolution.) Posted by Paladin at December 7, 2008 11:52 AM