XPost: alt.fan.tolkien, rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: dthierbach@usenet.arcornews.de   
      
   Öjevind Lång  wrote:   
   > "Dirk Thierbach"  skrev i meddelandet   
   > news:20090811104405.19F2.7.NOFFLE@dthierbach.news.arcor.de...   
   >> Öjevind Lång  wrote:   
      
   >>>> "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."   
      
   >>> Oh, of course. Thank you! I have always regarded that "law" as a rather   
   >>> feeble excuse for introducing "science" one needs for one's story.   
   >>   
   >> Hm. I've always regarded that law as an insight: A person brought from   
   >> the past to our times would think our means of seeing what happens   
   >> elsewhere, of talking to people not present, or of various things that   
   >> help with chores quite "magical".   
   >   
   > But that wasn't quite what Clarke was talking about, was it? I take it to   
   > mean that from our point of view, sufficiently advanced science could just   
   > as well be magic.   
      
   Well, that follows by analogy: If we were brought from our present into   
   the future, then the stuff people had in the future would likely look like   
   magic to us. Even if based on science.   
      
   So for "sufficiently advanced science", it really makes no difference.   
      
   Which means for a story, where the main purpose is to explore the   
   "what-if", it doesn't really matter if you explain it by magic or by   
   science, since both look the same, anyway.   
      
   - Dirk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)