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From: corwin@hope.UUCP (John Kempf)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Social implications of magic
Message-ID: <168@hope.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Mar-86 06:26:17 EST
Article-I.D.: hope.168
Posted: Tue Mar 18 06:26:17 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 03:22:12 EST
References: <9865@ucla-cs.ARPA> <1559@gitpyr.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, Riverside
Lines: 23


*** EAT HOT ELECTRONS LINE EATER SCUM ***

   Consider a world where magic and technology both exist.  Magic may
not always be easier to perform than technology.  For example, assume
that some of the basic principals of physics apply, such as conservation
of matter and energy.  Under that assumption, while one spell can
theoreticaly trash an entire castle, including defending army (or 
optionaly, just the defending army), the energy required to do so
may be prohibitivly expensive.  (See River of the Dancing Gods, et al)
Alternativly, consider that the people who are both willing and able to 
learn magic is  very small.  Most reasonable explanations assume that
magic is not unlike high-level mathamatics, or computer science. (see
the Lord D'Arcy and Myth-adventures series')  If this is true, The number
of people who could learn magic is limited (when was the last time that
you tried to teach an end user about computers), As is the number of
people willing to study that long.

	Also consider that there may be Social prejudices against the 
practice of magic, like there are here.

-corwin
ucbvax!ucdavis!ucrmath!hope!corwin