HFQ Official Snippet #15 Merry Christmas!

PeterZ wrote:What is magic anyway? Define magic and then we might differentiate it from technology. The ancients describe magical phenomena like flight that technology can duplicate. What do people mean when they use the term magic now?

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I'd argue that the original statement, that sufficiently advanced technology IS indistinguishable from magic is true, regardless of the target audience. People in this day and age are just more predisposed to seek and accept a mundane answer in technology than to leap to the supernatural.

That doesn't change the fact that electroplating would look equally magical to our ancient ancestors and our modern children.

As for aliens and their super high performance craft, all I'm saying is that it COULD be a radically advanced drive system that massively outperforms anything we've got. Or it could be magic, and you, kind ladies and gents, can't tell which the answer is. You may believe you know that is some sort of technical tomfoolery, but you can't describe, even in vague generalities, what that might entail, so for all intents, it may as well be magic. Hence, indistinguishable.

PeterZ wrote:What is magic anyway? Define magic and then we might differentiate it from technology. The ancients describe magical phenomena like flight that technology can duplicate. What do people mean when they use the term magic now?

Weird Harold wrote:

PeterZ wrote:What is magic anyway? Define magic and then we might differentiate it from technology. The ancients describe magical phenomena like flight that technology can duplicate. What do people mean when they use the term magic now?

Magic is what puts the smoke in electronic components and other devices. The Magic Smoke is what causes them to function properly and when it escapes thing stop working.

NervousEnergy wrote:I do wonder why so much emphasis is being placed on not allowing any of the 'inner circle' knowledge to get to the Go4. They're already telling everyone on Safehold who'll listen that the Church of Charis and everyone advocating for it are heretics who worship demons, use copies of the prescriptions for kindling, perform vile rituals, and probably eat actual babies for breakfast every morning.

Throwing in 'doesn't believe in the Archangels' and 'uses forbidden tech' doesn't seem any different than what they're saying right now about them.

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO it's a matter of how the Charisians (and allies & potential allies) would react if the Truth gets out.

If a Loyal Charisian suddenly starts condemning Cayleb for "disbelieving in the Archangels", that would hit harder on Cayleb's support than anything Clyntahn would claim.

Of course, there's also the "fun and games" of a Loyal Charisian speaking out against the Belief in the Archangels.

That would also "speak louder" than Clyntahn's words.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

DrakBibliophile wrote:IMO it's a matter of how the Charisians (and allies & potential allies) would react if the Truth gets out.

If a Loyal Charisian suddenly starts condemning Cayleb for "disbelieving in the Archangels", that would hit harder on Cayleb's support than anything Clyntahn would claim.

Of course, there's also the "fun and games" of a Loyal Charisian speaking out against the Belief in the Archangels.

That would also "speak louder" than Clyntahn's words.

I agree completely.

I can think of nothing else that has as high a probability of throwing the EoC into a civil war - much worse than the one in Siddarmark, and would cause the Charisian fleet to start fighting each other. Clyntahn would regard this as proof that God really was on his side, thereby not only compromising Merlin's mission at this time, but possibly for centuries.

tootall wrote:I'm still wondering why Merlin -et al- allowed Sandaria Ghatfryd to come along.
It takes both Merlin AND Nimue out of play. ??? And depending on their reactions -someone will have to baby-sit one or both these folks for some time to come.
We lose one (in chess terms) or both our of our queens.
I am sure our esteemed author is aware of this "problem", but I can't see why he did it.