Magic and technology

[ThinkerX]

I'm struck how people see variations and subtleties in "magic" yet seem to assume we all agree on what constitutes "technology".

There was a time when a horse collar and stirrups were "technology". Fertilizer is technology. At the same time, steam power was for centuries hardly more than a parlor trick. No one thought it was magic. Also, the line between what was magic and what was divine intervention was exceedingly blurry (I think someone mentioned this elsewhere).

You might get more useful answers if you said your story has X that is considered magic and I want to use Y, which I define as technology, alongside it; how would that work in a story? Something along those lines.

The metropolis of Corber Port in my 'Empire' series has a population of about a million, about ten thousand of whom are considered 'wizards.' However, the majority of those people - 7000+ - have no spellcasting ability. A couple of thousand of them are pretenders - sleight-of-hand artists, jugglers, or straight-out swindlers. The rest, though, are alchemists, tinkerers, and philosophers. Sophisticated devices produced by these people - crude cameras, mechanical music boxes, primitive lightbulbs, and most herb lore- are commonly counted as 'magic' by many common folk and regulated as such by the church.

 

[Fettju]

I'm struck how people see variations and subtleties in "magic" yet seem to assume we all agree on what constitutes "technology".

There was a time when a horse collar and stirrups were "technology". Fertilizer is technology. At the same time, steam power was for centuries hardly more than a parlor trick. No one thought it was magic. Also, the line between what was magic and what was divine intervention was exceedingly blurry (I think someone mentioned this elsewhere).

You might get more useful answers if you said your story has X that is considered magic and I want to use Y, which I define as technology, alongside it; how would that work in a story? Something along those lines.

"Technology" actually means knowledge or science of technique. Machine is exteriorized application of knowledge, magic is interiorized, the words have the same root

 

[Steelspider]

How does one fit both magic and sci fi technology into a single setting?

For context, the setting is rather low tech, roughly at an Iron Age level of technology and culture, so people are pretty superstitious.

However, there is also a lost civilization that was highly technologically advanced, though its tech was more organic in nature (eugenics, gene splicing, organic computers, creating flesh monsters, etc) instead of the standard sci fi image of mechanical technology like robots, lasers, etc. They're the reason why many monsters are lurking throughout the wilderness and dungeons.

I could have the "magic" just be lost technology misunderstood, but I still kinda want literal, arcane magic in the setting. Is there a way I can work it in without making it clash?

There are psychics in the setting, who were created by the lost empire, and most people see psionics as magic. The difference is that psionics is an innate ability (via generic experimentations) and doesn't require rituals or making pacts with an entity. So psychics are sorta-kinda a mage race.

I was thinking that arcane magic involves rituals, summonings and making pacts with spirits. Anyone can cast a spell with enough know-how, predation and the right materials, but it's time consuming and the more powerful the spell, the more complex and dangerous it is to perform. I haven't officially made up my mind, so I am open to alternative magic types.

The main thing is that it's a low magic setting. Magic exists, but it's uncommon and most of it is secretive. You're not gonna see a wizard throwing a fireball in the middle of the street.

Do you think magic and technology can work in a setting, or would they clash too much?

In the story I’m working on, an advance in technology/biological discovery essentially “created” magic. In other words biological science discovered a human gene that was the source of life (the soul) and its magical properties thus releasing the ability to use magic. Hope that makes scenes.