"any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology" -some technically correct person on the internet, coinflip if they were being pedantic or trying to make a good point. *ANY* technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who do not understand it -Florence Ambrose...who is a fictional character but the writer attributes the quote to her rather than himself because it was him trying to think in-character for her (which just so happens to be an example of the point of this story, neat coincidence that). weirdly enough this really does appear to be the earliest instance of this corollary of the rule despite "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" being positively ancient floating around in some form or another.
whoops! I knew I was missing one but I thought it was just one of the rewordings niggling at the back of my head: this is not quite a corollary of the rule but it _definitely_ still applies here. "any technology which can be distinguished from magic is insufficiently advanced" ...not sure if that one is supposed to be an admonition for authors or the motto of some in-story character or group, I'm not actually sure where it is originally from.
"We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ, and we know many things," Elric, Technomage.
*Silnadel Shaladin* Quoting Babylon 5? Unexpected and delightful t,o see people still appreciate one of the greatest shows to grace the small screen ,ever!
I imagine that the Terran government didn't want to waste their resources or show their actual military equipment, so they just hired the winners of talent show to do it for participate instead.
That's what I would do if I ran a galactic civ. Cloak all my military hardware once I know we have neighbors and know they know nothing and send people to do silly dances and blow something up from a distance and say a deity did it. For no other reason that to troll.
There is certainly a certain value in battlefield theatrics, Can't very well develop a countermeasure to something if you haven't got the faintest clue what it is they are trying to counter. No point in striking a munitions stockpile if they don't believe there are any munitions.
@@kozag-realityauditor7075 if the people can not see the true source of the damage how can they stop it. And what's better hitting something in front of the crowd or the plain box that blasts something a mile away? Theatrics impress and scare people when it comes to technology that is destructive.
@@derekstein6193 "The Legionnaire that scoffs at a lasgun has not charged across an open field against a hundred of them." - Maor the Scarred, Siege-Champion of the Scargivers thanks for reminding me of this great quote
Halfway through the story... Paused for this comment. Either, 1: Humans found out about the Xeno's thoughts on the whole Fantasy genre and are using Tech to fuck with the Xenos... 2: This Universe Humans actually have access to Magic... EDIT: It was the first one.... Humans - "Oh your an Advanced Civilization, just not a Super Advanced Civilization..." Xenos - "YEAH! WHATS THE DIFFERENCE!!!???" Humans - "PRESENTATION!!!!!!"
Yep. Deception and misdirection is as much a part of war as firepower. And if your enemy thinks you're using weapon A when you're really using weapon B... well their defensive reactions and the countermeasures they enact have a greater chance of being "sub optimal".
Humans : we advanced so far we got magic everything that lives: well we going to head out . Humans : kidding we just know how to put on a show and blow stuff up.
Humans: "But you know, Magic isn't out of the table yet. Did you hear of Dyson powered Grey Goo? It could do wonders we heard. If we just tinker our DNA here and there we even might..." Universe: "Ait, we're out!"
If you jail break your neural-link to connect to a cyberneticly augmented, genetically modified guard dog you can have your very own beast of darkness. Though you'd probably need at least a decade of trauma and PTSD for it to work as intended.
The funny thing in my opinion is I occasionally wind up trying to scroll down as you read these stories. Also, we know it doesn't exist, but it still looks cool, so how can we do something similar? We don't need magic, we just need enough tech to fake it.
14:22 Text: ..., and calmly utter the words: "Strike them down" NetNarrator: *proceeds to shout "Strike them down!"* Is this intentional? if it is, then is it a reference to that scene from Harry Potter where Dumbledore franticly shout and shake Harry while in the book it is written "... Dumbeldore calmly asked Harry..."?
The entire thing was just one giant magician's trick Of miss direction. If you ask me it's the perfect way to fool and scare your potential enemies and get your allies to think about asking for help.
Scientists study the unknown to learn that which is, Engineers study the known to make that which never was. -some space engineers loading screen probably
Human Mage: Oh that was all stage magic, Hollywood magic of making things appear different. The goal was to be impressive, right? Gullible Xenos: Oh, of course how silly of me. Human Mage: This is not the magic you are looking for. Xenos: This was not the magic we were looking for.
"We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ and we know many things."
Listening to this again, all I can think of is that the actual military would use the same tech minus the showy, time consuming chanting and flourishes.
i find it higly plausible, that humans just over-amped their stuff to to the point of being actual explosives, and hoping their stuff will not explode, just to put up a good show. XD
you know what we need. we need story where the humans posses the technology of imperium of man from warhammer 40k, but do not want to destroy and purge everything
Net Narrator: Do you believe in Magic? Me: In a young girl's heart? How the music can free her whenever it starts? It's Magic, how the music is groovy and makes her feel happy like an old time movie? I could tell you all about it, it could free your soul, but its like trying to tell a stranger about rock n roll... do you believe in magic?
They basically told a couple of hardcore LARPers they were going to put on a show using experimental to fuck with the universe and they responded with say less.
Nice story! I would've loved if they had actual magic just for the thought of various advanced alien species, prepared to basically everything the galactic technology level can create, seeing actual fucking magic and going OH SHIT OH FUCK
