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<blockquote data-quote="Dethklok" data-source="post: 6140111" data-attributes="member: 6746469">Of course, but I don't think you're following your analogy through to its conclusion.Much available technology has the effect of improving life for the user at the expense of some larger picture. Nuclear power is great for generating energy, but I hear Japan is giving it up in the aftermath of their recent disaster. Abortion is great for terminating an unwanted pregnancy, but societies without abortion have larger birthrates. Submachineguns are excellent weapons, but in the wrong hands they become tools of mass murder. Low cost food is wonderful, until obesity rates skyrocket. Likewise, magic could easily have some similar tradeoffs at the societal scale if it* Weakens the fabric of reality, allowing extra-planar entities to invade areas with heavy magic use,* Has addictive qualities,* Is better for attack than defense, so that it's easy for mentally unbalanced sorcerers to kill huge numbers of innocent people, or* Is better for defense than attack, so that the existing power structure gradually becomes corrupt with no hope for a revolution.Technology often has complicated repercussions at the societal level.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dethklok, post: 6140111, member: 6746469"] Of course, but I don't think you're following your analogy through to its conclusion. Much available technology has the effect of improving life for the user at the expense of some larger picture. Nuclear power is great for generating energy, but I hear Japan is giving it up in the aftermath of their recent disaster. Abortion is great for terminating an unwanted pregnancy, but societies without abortion have larger birthrates. Submachineguns are excellent weapons, but in the wrong hands they become tools of mass murder. Low cost food is wonderful, until obesity rates skyrocket. Likewise, magic could easily have some similar tradeoffs at the societal scale if it * Weakens the fabric of reality, allowing extra-planar entities to invade areas with heavy magic use, * Has addictive qualities, * Is better for attack than defense, so that it's easy for mentally unbalanced sorcerers to kill huge numbers of innocent people, or * Is better for defense than attack, so that the existing power structure gradually becomes corrupt with no hope for a revolution. Technology often has complicated repercussions at the societal level. [/QUOTE]

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