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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2281695" data-attributes="member: 19675">One last point of clarification about my position on Celebrim's fireball:  the quantum events he described as being a potential sci-fi origins of a fireball only occur at incredibly high temperatures.  So, yes, you do get particles arising out of a sea of energy, but only when you're talking millions of degrees kelvin...birth of the universe/heart of a star/inside a supercollider type environments:  Truly unlikely energy levels to be contained and controlled by an old song-and-dance man with a stick.Which is why if find Mitichlorians more likely than quantum fireballs. And how much energy does it take to control?You're getting the impossible free lunch.  To get "near infinite amounts of energy"-say, clean fusion- in a sci fi setting requires years of resarch, unimaginable amounts of money, physical plant, as well as human capital- just to set up the mechanism capable of tapping that source.  Then there's upkeep.Your universe?  Education and training are required, to be sure, but mere words and paper and ink to open a gateway to limitless power?  You're getting a lot more out than you're investing. Um...your "mechanical device" is nothing more than movements and ink and parchment.  It doesn't interact with reality in the way a true machine does.  The most favorable readings I can give what you described above is either a set of engineering plans or a magical battery.  Plans only describe the specs for a machine, and batteries don't do anything except store energy for use by a machine. Well, that's convenient for you.  We're trying to define and describe differences between magic and sci-fi, and you're redefining vocabulary to fit your purposes.  That's pretty counterproductive.For the record, examine how far these words have been twisted:Where real world concepts and symbols are not things in themselves, your "chimaera" are both metaphysical entities AND things in themselves.To be perfectly clear, I'm not asserting that magic can't operate by teachable rules.  I know it can- I said as much in previous posts.And yes, I AM as critical about high-tech in sci-fi when I have to be.  The point of Dannyalcatraz's Arcane Observation was to illustrate that while magic and tech may look alike, when you start looking "under the hood", so to speak, there are discernable differences.  Magic usually doesn't require cause and effect to involve traceable physical connections, and technology- in every sci-fi book I've read- does.  Warp Drive requires power from matter/anti-matter reactions.  Nanites?- powered by temperature differential or decay engines.The requirement of intervening mechanical devices is one of few non-cosmetic (read: setting and trappings) distinctions (along with magical thinking versus scientific thinking) that is pretty consistently different between the two genres.</blockquote>

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