Muggle vs. Wizarding Technology by Joywitch M. Curmudgeon

    Pagina Catalogata come Supposizioni, teorie, approfondimenti

"Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."
-- Arthur Weasley (CS4)

Wizards don't use electricity for a very good reason -- they don't need it, in fact they don't need our technology at all (except maybe for sherbet lemons). Modern muggle technology, according to wizards, is a poor substitute for magic. And modern muggle technology is largely based on the availability of cheap, efficient energy sources, especially electricity.

But wizards can create their own energy. This is one of the most significant differences between muggles and wizards. Why mine coal, build power plants and power lines and thousands of devices, create vast amounts of pollution, and endanger the future of the planet through global warming, if you can light hundreds of candles with a flick of the wrist?

Wizards have their own sort of technologies. They are constantly improving and refining magical objects. The history of the broomstick, as explained in QA, makes this clear. And several people have noticed the similarities between the kind of logic that goes into creating a magical item such as the Marauder's Map and the kind of logic that goes into writing a computer program. They are simply different types of technologies, and one is not necessarily superior to the other.

I have studied the history and development of technology and many of the devices we use have as much to do with cultural preferences and historical accidents as anything else. Different technologies develop for different reasons at different times. Many cultures independently invented the wheel, for example, and many of them rejected it because their geographic conditions made it unsuitable for use in a transportation device.

I think wizards do plenty of research. That's why they need publications like Transfiguration Today. They just research different stuff than muggles do because they have different needs, just like the Mayans stopped researching the wheel because they lived in a mountainous region at the same time Europeans were developing wheeled vehicles.

So, if wizards need to know about some field that we would think of as science--genetics for example--they are likely to be researching it. What they discover and what they create from that research will be as non-Muggle as can be, of course. They'll be looking for different things and interpreting what they find in totally different ways.

“Ingegnoso, veramente! Quanti modi hanno trovato i Babbani per cavarsela senza la magia!”
— Arthur Weasley (HP CS4)

I Maghi non usano l’elettricità per una buona ragione — non ne hanno bisogno, in effetti loro non hanno affatto bisogno della nostra tecnologia (ad eccezione, forse, del sorbetto al limone). La moderna tecnologia babbana, secondo i maghi, è una povera sostituta della magia. La moderna tecnologia babbana, poi, è basata in gran parte sulla disponibilità di economiche, efficienti fonti di energia, in particolari modo dell’elettricità.

I maghi, però, possono creare la loro energia. Questa è una delle più significative differenze tra maghi e babbani. Perché estrarre carbone, costruire impianti di energia e linee elettriche e migliaia di dispositivi, creando grandi quantità di inquinamento, e mettendo a repentaglio il futuro del pianeta con il surriscaldamento globale, se si possono accendere centinaia di candele con un movimento del polso?

I Maghi hanno il loro tipo di tecnologie. Loro migliorano e rifiniscono gli oggetti magici continuamente. La storia della scopa volante, come spiegato in QA, lo rende ancora più chiaro. Molte persone hanno notato le similarità che ci sono tra la logica di creare un oggetto magico come la Mappa del Malandrino e quella della scrittura di un programma per computer. Sono semplicemente tipi diversi di tecnologie, e una non è detto che sia superiore all’altra.

Ho studiato la storia e lo sviluppo della tecnologia e molti dispositivi che usiamo hanno molto a che vedere con le preferenze culturali e gli avvenimenti storici, come tutto il resto. Le diverse tecnologie si sviluppano per diverse ragioni in tempi diversi. Molte culture hanno inventato la ruota in maniera indipendente l’una dalle altre, per esempio, ma molte di queste l’hanno poi rifiutata perché le condizioni geografiche della zona da loro abitata la rendevano inutilizzabile come mezzo di trasporto.

Penso che i maghi facciano molte ricerche. Ecco perché hanno bisogno di pubblicazioni come “Trasigurazione Oggi”. Loro ricercano solamente cose differenti dai babbani perché hanno differenti bisogni, esattamente come i Maya hanno smesso di fare ricerche sulla ruota, nello stesso periodo in cui gli Europei stavano sviluppando mezzi su ruota, perché vivevano in una zona montagnosa.

In questo modo, se i maghi hanno bisogno di conoscere qualche campo che noi reputiamo una scienza — la genetica ad esempio — verosimilmente cominceranno a fare ricerche in tal senso. Quello che scopriranno e che creeranno da quella ricerca sarà quanto di più non-Babbano si possa avere, ovviamente. Loro cercherebbero cose diverse e interpreterebbero i risultati in modi totalmente differenti.











[ORIGINALE]

"Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."
-- Arthur Weasley (CS4)

Wizards don't use electricity for a very good reason -- they don't need it, in fact they don't need our technology at all (except maybe for sherbet lemons). Modern muggle technology, according to wizards, is a poor substitute for magic. And modern muggle technology is largely based on the availability of cheap, efficient energy sources, especially electricity.

But wizards can create their own energy. This is one of the most significant differences between muggles and wizards. Why mine coal, build power plants and power lines and thousands of devices, create vast amounts of pollution, and endanger the future of the planet through global warming, if you can light hundreds of candles with a flick of the wrist?

Wizards have their own sort of technologies. They are constantly improving and refining magical objects. The history of the broomstick, as explained in QA, makes this clear. And several people have noticed the similarities between the kind of logic that goes into creating a magical item such as the Marauder's Map and the kind of logic that goes into writing a computer program. They are simply different types of technologies, and one is not necessarily superior to the other.

I have studied the history and development of technology and many of the devices we use have as much to do with cultural preferences and historical accidents as anything else. Different technologies develop for different reasons at different times. Many cultures independently invented the wheel, for example, and many of them rejected it because their geographic conditions made it unsuitable for use in a transportation device.

I think wizards do plenty of research. That's why they need publications like Transfiguration Today. They just research different stuff than muggles do because they have different needs, just like the Mayans stopped researching the wheel because they lived in a mountainous region at the same time Europeans were developing wheeled vehicles.

So, if wizards need to know about some field that we would think of as science--genetics for example--they are likely to be researching it. What they discover and what they create from that research will be as non-Muggle as can be, of course. They'll be looking for different things and interpreting what they find in totally different ways.






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Stai guardando TID 5200
(EID 46 - REV 0 By Stefano_Draems)
January 1, 1970

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