The Dresden Files > DFRPG

Magic and Technology

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The Doctor:

--- Quote from: Kalium on June 21, 2006, 04:29:34 AM ---He understands that it works, but nothing about it that we know of. The difference is huge. If he had decent "book-knowledge", he would know about the EM physics involved and such. What he has is a vague knowledge that it exists.
--- End quote ---
If Harry only read a couple of magazine articles on GPS units and suchlike, chances are the articles would not go into great detail on their inner workings because such articles are written as overviews of technologies and what applications they could have, not the theory and implementation therof.

neminem:
I have this to point out about Harry, though - he seems like the sort of guy who generally does something, assuming it works reasonably well - because he's always done it that way. We know it's possible for wizards to stay around technology without anything going wrong - we saw that in Death Masks. The spell he used was ridiculously complicated, required complete concentration and failed at the least mistake. But he also probably didn't spend a long time researching the problem. Suppose we had a geek-minded person like Butters, who also happened to have wizardly powers on a Dresden-like level. Do you honestly think that person wouldn't research the hell out of the problem, until they'd found a spell that required less constant thought, and was more reliable?

I honestly don't buy your thought, johntfs (does your name have anything to do with the file-system, incidentally?) - Harry is a huge wizard-nerd, yes, but that's about the only kind of nerd he is. I've always gathered that he doesn't use technology because, well, that's just the way it works.

Then, too, I gather that in the Dresdenverse, magic often does what you think it will. That's not the only issue, of course, but I imagine that he'd at least find it easier to figure out how to ward technology from his effects, if he thought it would be easy to find.

P.S. You know, if it were just a matter of probabilities... a phone requires way less delicate calculation than, say, a human brain. :P

Wow, this thread is going way off topic... sorry for contributing to that, but it's an interesting discussion.

Mickey Finn:
As Harry's magic comes from life itself, brains are probably no going to affected by the ambient field ;)

Kalium:

--- Quote from: Mickey Finn on June 29, 2006, 12:44:09 PM ---As Harry's magic comes from life itself, brains are probably no going to affected by the ambient field ;)

--- End quote ---

Last I checked, brains basically ran on electricity.

The Last Bean:
Yes, but they run on Biochemical electricity. It is a well esablished fact in the dresdenverse that magic comes from life, and even seems to support and protect it at a basic level. (Such as the fact that wizards live a really long time and will recover from almost any injury) One could even make the argument that technology is being damage because of its dissimilarity to the natural order of things, and the fact that it is not, in fact, living.

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