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Metaphysical App: Difference between revisions
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A '''Metaphysical App''' is a smartphone app -- which is to say, a specialized computer program -- that has a paranormal or supernatural function. By their very nature they're found in [[Urban Fantasy]] or "soft" [[Speculative Fiction]] settings where the tech base is ''at least'' advanced enough to support hand-held computing devices capable of running reasonably complex programs. The magic is in the ''program'', not the device it runs on.<ref>Otherwise you're just dealing with a conventionally enchanted hand-held item.</ref> There are settings where non-mobile computers or free-willed [[Artificial Intelligence|AI]]s can perform magic, [[Well, This Is Not That Trope|but in neither case could one classify them as "apps"]].
Exactly ''how'' such a program accomplishes its function is open to authorial [[Hand Wave|handwaving]]. They may be genuine [[Post-Modern Magik]], where technological means are being used to produce a magical effect. On the other hand, it may just be [[Clarke's Third Law]] in play,
Like many such tropes, the existence of Metaphysical Apps can be either a major plot element of the story in which they appear, or simple "flavor" details, like any other everyday technology.
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