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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2279467" data-attributes="member: 19675">Arthur C. Clark's aphorism aside, one thing I noticed about most magic systems (in fantasy stories- not RPGs) versus high-tech is this:Magic is usually something that not everyone has access to, as opposed to tech, whose availability is limited only by law or money.  I dub this Dannyalcatraz's Arcane Observation.  It is a counterpoint to Clark's aphorism.  While "Sufficiently advanced technogy is indistinguishable from magic" in effects, it is NOT neccessarily indistinguishable in CAUSE.Somehow, someway, technology can ALWAYS be acquired.  Access may be restricted, but money, security clearances and even theft can alter that.  But no matter how advanced the tech is, it is still technology- no matter how much the tech warps reality, it still has intervening, actuating mechanisms.But the use of magic is usally a birthright.  By that I mean, most mages and sorcerers are "gifted," apart from all the rest of the beings of the world they inhabit, by birth with the ability to manipulate the universe at their whim in ways others cannot.  You are either capable or incapable of using magic (ignoring magic items, of course).  It is an inborn trait, like eye color or a predisposition to sickle cell anemia.  Yes, training is usually required- except for the exceptionally gifted or exceptionally dangerous- but the world is divided inalterably into those who CAN practice magic and those who CAN NEVER practice magic.  And the ability to warp reality with magic has NO intervening mechanisms, unlike technology- just the will and skill of the magics manipulator.Two of the best examples of this are the movie Forbidden Planet (intervening Reality warping tech= The Krell Machine), and David Brin's The Practice Effect (intervening Reality warping tech= nanites).There are exceptions, of course, and since there ARE, even D's Arcane Observation cannot be used as a bright-line test.</blockquote>

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