I appreciate the philosophical insights of the occult. I am enlightened by the revelations of science. I am the grateful beneficiary of technology. Why not have it all?
Magic, as a plausible concept, is the manipulation of natural forces to cause a desired effect. Unlike technology it is innately living. Casting a spell requires feeling. The thoughts of the caster shape and direct the feeling. Items are useful tools and may be enchanted but they cannot cast spells. Magic, by its intimate nature, cannot be mass-produced.
Technology is the production of substances and devices that cause a desired effect. Unlike magic, it is not bound to the person of its user. It minimizes rather than requires the exertion of its beneficiaries. The items of technology are the technology itself. Because they are impersonal they can be mass-produced.
I am a writer and an artist. I refine and fashion my fancies into art and fiction. I wanted a world of many worlds where technologically advanced human civilizations rivaled magically advanced alien civilizations. The guns and bombs of humanity would clash with the swords and spells of strange races as equals.
Because technology exceeds what is natural its machines are faster and stronger than anything living. Its weapons are more destructive than anything magical.
Because magic is the channeling of natural forces its use is inexhaustibly efficient: its living powers are tapped into what already is and moved by what is already flowing. Because it is derived from actuality itself, magic would excel at divination, conjuration, sensory manipulation and warding.
I wanted magic and technology to be equals but very distinct. Each would have its own advantages. Its weaknesses would be the downside of its strengths. A technologically advanced society would be better at accomplishing what it wants. A magically advanced society would be better at optimizing what it already has. The philosophy of magic and the science of technology would be pondering the same reality but from differing perspectives. Their results would differ but be equal.
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