Magic From Technology: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

The science-fiction equivalent of magic. Magic does not derive from an actual mystical or spiritual source; rather, it is technology in disguise. The characters using this magic may or may not be aware of its true origins.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': We are told, time and time again, that alchemy is a science. They go to great lengths to portray it as one, with lots of preparation and study, but it can do things that make no sense from our scientific perspective; it's [[Functional Magic]].

** Again after the time skip, where she even corrects one of the enemies by stating her abilities is "purely science" while using a new staff she calls "sorcery climate".

* In ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'' (and its later OVA, [[GaoGaiGar]] FINAL), the [[Amplifier Artifact|G-Stone]] {{spoiler|and its relative the J-Jewel}}, [[The Virus|Zonder Metal]], and the [[Matter Replicator|Pas-Q Machine]] all do things that either border on or [[Beyond the Impossible|far, FAR surpass the impossible]], and no explanation for their operation is given beyond [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|'ancient alien technology'.]]

 

== Comic Books ==

* Skartaris, setting for ''[[The Warlord]]'', not only contains genuine magic but a lot of pre-cataclysmic Atlantean technology that functions like magic to the primitive inhabitants.

 

 

== Film ==

* In ''[[John Carter (film)|John Carter]]'', the ancient, immortal [[Superior Species|Therns]] wield what a modern man might call weaponized nanotechnology (powered by the "Ninth Ray"). It takes the form of an easily-concealed mass of lichen-like vines that grow and adapt to the user's needs: making [[Frickin' Laser Beams|beam weapons]] of [[BFG|various sizes]], [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]s, and even crawling on the skin of someone else to either kill them by crushing the skull or restrain their movement by implanting themselves into the skin. Of course, since this ''is'' the very early 20th century, the stuff looks more like magic than anything.

** Other powers include a means of [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]], long-range communication and travel and a medallion that can transport people between planets via [[Astral Projection]] (that is, leaving the original body sleeping where you left it, and sending a copy with your mind in it to the destination).

 

== Literature ==

* Subverted in the [[Harry Turtledove]] short story ''Death in Vesuna''. A hot-headed time traveler shoots a Roman book dealer in order to get a book that doesn't exist in his time. The locals, who only heard the gunshot and found the corpse, assume it was "Zeus's thunderbolt", but the two men investigating the case use logic and intelligence to figure out exactly what happened.

** Also subverted in ''The Guns of the South'', the novel that made Turtledove famous. Time travelers go back to change [[The American Civil War]] in the Confederacy's favor by arming them with AK-47s. The guns are never treated as magic, simply as weapons of amazing quality whose appearance makes no sense (as a Confederate gunsmith points out, the guns simply appear out of nowhere, without any precursor models, which would still be vastly superior to anything currently available). Within a couple of years, the Confederates are producing their own copies (and the last chapter says that the United States has developed similar weapons). The same thing is true of the MREs and instant coffee the time travelers had. Dessicated foods are nothing new, just the idea of preparing coffee and whole meals that way.

* Taken literally in ''[[The Book of the New Sun]]'' by [[Gene Wolfe]]—all magic comes from [[Lost Technology]].

* [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''The Last Question'' turns out to be {{spoiler|''Divinity''}} From Technology.

* The majority of stories where starship-era characters somehow meet medieval-era characters have the medieval-era people believe that the technology is actually magic, at least initially. Generally, it's only the trusted allies who are told that it's actually advanced technology, the bad guys are left believing it's magic, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|often with truly hilarious reactions]]. Sometimes has unfortunate consequences if there's a local Inquisition. [[David Weber]] is fond of this.

** In Christopher Stasheff's ''[[Warlock of Gramaraye]]'' series the main protagonist lands on a medieval world and because of his modern technology, he's taken for a magician (understandably, since magic - technically, [[Psychic Powers]] - is commonplace on the planet). {{spoiler|It is eventually revealed that they're right.}}

* ''[[Trapped]]'' by James Alan Gardner explains that magic on earth is actually alien nanotech that has displaced about 1/3rd of all bacteria in the entire ecosystem, including all the bacteria inside animals, and humans too. It can be controlled by people that had nanotech attach itself to the right spot in their brains while still in the womb. Where and how it attached determined the types of powers, and how they were activated. One character explained the feeling of performing magic being like having a million happy puppies eager to do his bidding.

* This is the central conceit of ''[[The Steerswoman]]''. The characters all use terminology that seems straight out of a [[Standard Fantasy Setting]], but their world is actually much more science-fictional (the "spell"-casting "wizards" are actually people who've preserved more technology than everyone else, the "gnomes" are {{spoiler|chimpanzees}}, the "demons" are {{spoiler|[[Starfish Aliens]]}}, and so on).

* Elizabeth Bear's ''Dust'' and ''Chill''. Angels are [[A Is]] given "bodies" by means of forcefields, magic swords are products of nanotech and the "magic" of the various sorcerers, priests and necromancers are varying combinations of cyber and biotech.

* Mike Resnick's ''The Buntline Special'' has Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline working under the auspices of the US government to find a way to circumvent Native American magic.

 

* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episodes "Who Mourns For Adonais?", "Catspaw" and "The Squire Of Gothos". This is also vaguely implied to be what powers Q in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' and the Prophets from ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]''.

** The ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Who Watches The Watchers" uses this explanation to convince the people that they are not gods, by pointedly asking how they themselves might be regarded by ancient ancestors who had never seen a bow and arrow strike down an animal at range.

* It remains to be seen whether the powers in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' will turn out to be an example of this, but the [[Techno Babble]] descriptions of the mutations that resulted in them are definitely in the spirit of Magic From Technology.

* Many episodes of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' involve discovering the Magic From Technology truth behind apparently supernatural menaces. (However, the truth tends to be ''scarier'' than what things looked to be at the beginning). The Doctor's race, the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Time Lords]], also have this going on in a [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit|BIG]] way. Many of their more notable pieces of technology, especially anything created by Rassilon or Omega, are magical items in all discernible respects and some are capable of potentially universal effects.

* ''[[Quatermass|Quatermass and the Pit]]'' explained traditional black magic and the occult as being garbled racial memories of [[Ancient Astronauts]] meddling with the brains and cognitive abilities of primitive hominids.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** This is actually state policy. Common folk do not understand that their machines are exactly that and refer to "machine spirits" which need to be "appeased" by "rituals" to keep them working, healthy, and benevolent. Lesser "Tech Priests" usually buy the propaganda, too. Of course, the "religious" rituals tend to be good, old-fashioned maintenance with a few hymns thrown in. Based on the author (and world), this cargo cult madness might be reserved for very complex machines or might result in folks sing hymns to their noble, fallen light bulbs when they burn out. Whatever the case may be, the ''vast, vast'' majority of humans truly believe technology is magic.

* Lampshaded in ''d20 Past'', a supplement for ''[[D20 Modern]]''. The "Pulp Heroes" campaign setting includes a "Scientist" advanced class. One of the class features is that they make scientific discoveries, which they can then use to create technological devices by spending XP. The effects of these devices are taken from the spell lists for the "Urban Arcana" setting.

 

== Video Games ==

** Even more so in the back story, as at one point there were machines that allowed regular humans to use it as well. However it was lost in [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. Well, [[The World Is Always Doomed|the most recent one]].

* The ''[[Wild ARMs]]'' series uses this as well. Though studied in academies like [[Functional Magic]] magic on Filgaia is actually a result of nanomachines {{spoiler|left in the atmosphere by the precursor race who were abandoning a swiftly dying planet, not realizing that by decreasing the population like they did they saved it anyway and the world survives.}} Any supernatural beings or monsters arise from people or animals being altered by nanomachines. In later installments of the series magic is channeled from technological spirits called Guardians using the same principles as above.

** Subverted {{spoiler|in that, after the device is destroyed, she still manages to deflect several projectiles fired at her.}}

** Otacon also invokes [[Clarke's Third Law]] as an explanation of Vamp's wall climbing skills in ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots|MGS4]]''.

* ''[[Touhou]]'' PC-98 characters Rika, Rikako Asakura, Chiyuri Kitashirakawa, and Yumemi Okazaki have all used science to such degrees that spirits and fairies emerge. In the Windows series, the kappa frequently borrow and improve upon technology from outside Gensokyo, but this might be more [[Magitek]].

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'': Biotics are magic like abilities that some people develop, if they are fortunate enough to survive in-utero exposure to a [[Minovsky Physics|Minovsky Particle]], given brain surgery, and attach a [[Cyborg|cybernetic]] "amp" into the back of their neck. A biotic needs a lot more calories than normal [[Averted Trope|due to]] [[No Conservation of Energy|Conservation Of Energy]], and their powers are restricted to [[Gravity Screw|affecting mass, and creating singularities]].

* In the ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' games' backstory, a limitless energy source was eventually discovered and the scientists gave it the most appropriate name they could: magic.

* NOVA in ''[[Kirby Super Star]]'', the wish-granting comet god, is made of random mechanical parts.

* In most of the main ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series there are technological devices known as COMPs, computers that perform all the magical rituals needed for demon summoning.

 

* The vast majority of technology seen in ''[[Heliothaumic]]'' is derived from centuries of study of the titular Heliothaumic energy that is derived from the sun, either using solar panels or [[Green Rocks|thaumite]].

* In ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'', a binding spell used to negate the powers of a [[Body Snatcher]] turns out to be a kind of computer program. However, the computer itself [[Magitek|contains magic parts]].

* Seems to be the case in ''[[Homestuck]]'', or at the very least Eridan seems to believe so, with his [[White Magic]] of SCIENCE as he calls it.

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'', [[Mad Scientist|Tedd]] after his years-long study and refinement of alien [[Transformation Ray]] technology and related equipment. When one of his magic-using friends got in a trouble, they were offhandedly told that shapeshifting, innate or instrumental, uses [http://egscomics.com/?date=2008-11-13 essentially the same forces as magic], and witnessed crude measurement of the latter. Three guesses at [http://egscomics.com/index.php?arcid=72 what his next project is about]?

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* In [http://everything2.com/title/How%2520the%2520scientists%2520discovered%2520magic How Scientists discovered magic]. Inverted with [http://everything2.com/title/How%2520mages%2520discovered%2520the%2520scientific%2520method How mages discovered the scientific method].

 

* Parodied in one of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'''s future [[What If]] episodes. "We can do anything now that scientists have invented magic!"

* In ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', no attempt is made to explain how a series of injections (in the novel, mostly steroids) have given Nicodemus [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]] and [[Mind Over Matter|telekinesis]]. However, since it's [[Rule of Cool|awesome]] and thematic, it doesn't have to.

* [[The Powerpuff Girls]] were made from Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice.

* Used and averted in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'', where Kid Flash attempts a technobabble explanation to Doctor Fate's genuine mystical powers. Klarion the witch boy, another magic user, observes this and mocks his current minion Abra Kadabra with the fact that Flash has identified the precise method that he uses to pretend to have magical powers.

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]

[[Category:Hollywood Science]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]