Shifting Paradigms
It's interesting to watch the evolution of fiction pushed by reality. These thoughts have bounced around in my head for a couple weeks, more recently brought back to mind by comments on the John Carter movie. I never read the Barsoom novels, but the whole "retro-futurism" concept reminds me the thoughts are more widely applicable than the few examples that have come to mind for me.
One is Shadowrun. SR back in the 80's involved fighting your way to nodes so deckers could get in past security and crack open secrets worth stealing. As the internet and wi-fi became more ubiquitous in the real world, however, the Matrix became almost laughable. And, as a result, we have newer editions with more wireless technology. The concepts of decks and hard lines have become archaic.
The biggest example that's been in my mind of late has to do with the Dresden Files. That's partly because the magic in the setting is (repeatedly) explained as being based on belief. A change in beliefs can literally change how magic works in that world, so I'm not just thinking about how things would be different if the books were written later, but I can actually look at it from the perspective of how things may very well change as the setting progresses.
And the big focal point for that is magic's interaction with technology. Through the lens of Harry Dresden, we see that more recent/complex technology can be fouled by magic (at least human magic) - accidentally or deliberately. He can hex cameras and things like recent cars don't last long with him.
But all of that is tied in with belief. And wizardly (White Council, at least) belief is based on old tradition. That magic screws with technology is a perceived truth. That doesn't mean it's a universal one. In fact, based on all the talk about belief, it strikes me as blatantly false.
And here I do get into "if the books were written a little later" because if the world had progressed just a few more years along, we could have seen a Molly Carpenter who was a frequently-texting teen before she came into her magical talents. And that, I feel, would have been a whole different story. To first-world kids today, the internet is taken for granted and cell phones are a way of life. You drop belief-based magic on someone like that and they won't even be able to conceptualize why it wouldn't get along with the communications technology that's a part of their lives.
And then you have a generation of wizards who probably use their cell phones as focus items rather than short them out.
That's just the in-world side. I think it's probably unavoidable that we'll see less and less magic-versus-tech showing up in urban fantasy as authors and audiences alike come to take more tech for granted.
I'd like to see a setting where tech IS magic. Communication over long distances via a spell in the Renaissance Period is the same things telephones do. Scrying upon a remote location is video cameras. Basically all the inventions tap into magic in a small way and then make it massively available, phasing out the need for rite and ritual to do the same effect.
ReplyDelete"Any sufficiently advanced technology..." At some point, you end up having some trouble distinguishing. I haven't seen very many settings with truly ubiquitous magic. My limited understanding of Eberron has magical devices filling the roles of many technological inventions. But for purposes of an RPG or book, it actually matters little whether two characters are talking via ethereal connection or radio waves. This whole thing also brought to mind the Kate Daniels series where magic and technology are seriously in opposition... mostly. They come in waves and when magic is up, people use mounts and magic-converted automobiles to get around instead of internal combustion engines. And vice versa. But sometimes telephones work when magic is "up." Kate explains it more or less as: so few people understand how phones actually work that their acceptance of them essentially makes them work on a magic level as well.
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