thaluikhain said:
Jesterscup said:
Hmmm...even if he's not using any apparatus, presumably there must be something he is using. Calling on a god for a boon just passes the issue along, same as calling on anyone else.
However, if magic can be predicted, if it can be reproducible (at least in theory), then it would count as a science. You make predictions about it, you test them, your predictions are right or wrong, you record them and make new predictions...you've turned it into a science.
As to using force of will, in that case you could say that magic is that science dealing with the power of the mind.
Ahh yes but now you're talking about science rather than technology, and they are not the same things, we can use technology to explore science, and from the understanding of science we get new technologies.
Can/could we consider magic as science?
I'm going to play devils advocate here:
You make predictions about it, you test them, your predictions are right or wrong, you record them and make new predictions...you've turned it into a science.
But what if magic doesn't play nice with scientific method?
You make Prediction A. and test it, you discover you were right, from that you predict B. stemming from A. , but it doesn't work.
Perhaps A. and B. are separate and both true, and that trying both at the same time should give you both A and B, but instead gives you C or nothing.
Lets move on, because It can be argued that these predictable results can at least be catalogued, but perhaps magic would not allow for rational deduction, IE. you couldn't have theoretical magic, as you do with physics. Sure we may be able to develop an understanding of sorts, we'd have a catalogue of spells, and randomly over time, with experimentation we would have to assume that new spells appear and are created, but it does not follow that we could do so in a methodical or even understandable manner.
I'm not saying that there might not be some understandable mechanisms which would allow magic as science, I'm arguing that there are ways which science may not be.
Say we have these amazing mental abilities, we consider them 'magic' when in fact they come from some organ in the brain that manipulates quantum effects ( stay with me here). Throughout history we would have been able to catalogue the abilities & techniques, and over time learnt new ones. but the underlaying understanding would inherently be beyond our understanding, until the ability to do science on the quantum level comes along.
I would argue that without understanding of the mechanisms themselves then it cannot be considered science.
