James John Bell doth schreibble :
>
> Didn't Arthur C. Clarke nail this technology/magic debate a while ago? :)
With regard to "Clarke's Law" ( and
Niven's Corollary < Any sufficiently
advanced magic is indistinguishable
from technology >), see :
Re: The Brass Goggles Occult Society
« Reply #370 on: April 01, 2009 »
http://tinyurl.com/yfagorf
The notion of 'Magic as Technology'
precedes Clarke by millennia - and
as late as the 12th CEV, the author
of a commentary on Martianus Capella's
*Marriage of Mercury and Philology*
( which was written in the 5th CEV)
describes mechanica - that is, the
Mechanical Arts - as being made up of
wool-working, architecture, arms
manufacture, navigation, hunting,
agriculture, medicine, and magic.
Besides Harmening's work on this
subject ( cited and available via the
link above ), I also recommend Elspeth
Whitney's *Paradise Restored : The
Mechanical Arts from Antiquity
through the Thirteenth Century*.
Cors in Manu Domine,
~ Khem Caigan
<[log in to unmask]>
" Heat and Moisture are Active to Generation;
Cold and Dryness are Passive, in and to each Thing;
Fire and Air, Active by Elementation;
Water and Earth, Passive to Generation. "
~ Simon Forman, *Of the Division of Chaos*
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