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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7879842" data-attributes="member: 53980">I think that totalitarian regimes might restrict it from personal use initially. But only the most fanatical leaders would outlaw it entirely. And it's quite possible that they would find it all but impossible to put the genie back in the bottle in practice.In democracies there would certainly be regulation, but banning is unlikely given the technological advantage it would provide and the power of the tech giants that would undoubtedly back it. Sure, you don't want just anyone slinging the equivalent of a fireball (although it sounds like that might not even be a thing in this magic system) but a charm that keeps your beverage chilled? The latter is a wonderful convenience, except maybe to the religious fringe. People love their conveniences. Can you even imagine what would happen today if the government tried to take away the internet in a free society? People would be livid! At a minimum, people would be screaming for those lawmakers heads on pikes (figuratively speaking). They could forget about reelection. You don't want to mess with people's conveniences, because those keep a democratic population calm and complacent. (Whereas totalitarian regimes are more likely to leverage some combination of fear and patriotism.)Democratic governments are likely to regulate as they go, which will cause more than a few bumps in the road (just look at the internet and how legal regulation has typically lagged behind). But it also means greater freedom for magic users in the grand scale. If it hasn't been regulated, it's fair game. That said, there are plenty of cases in which existing laws will still apply. Murder using magic is arguably still murder (although, depending on the means, there may be little precedent to draw upon when arguing the case). Same with larceny and so forth.In the long term though, it is likely to put democracies even further ahead of the technological curve thanks to the magi-tech that will result. Because if anyone can learn magic, that greatly increases your odds of the next "tech genius" who research results in the next leap forward for humanity. A free society can encourage innovation.That is likely to force many totalitarian governments to eventually loosen their restrictions, or risk falling behind the new magi-tech superpowers. Of course, at this point those governments will likely have found ways to regulate what and how magic is used (using forensic magic), so magic will be less of a threat to the governmental body overall. The best magic users in those countries will still almost invariably be the ones employed by the government.So in the moderate term I think that free societies will develop more quickly in terms of new innovation, while regimes where freedoms are limited will advance more quickly in detecting and countering uses of magic (controlling magic use). Those regimes that seek to bury their heads in the sand will fall behind and be rendered largely irrelevant in a relatively short space of time.</blockquote>

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