03-12-2019, 07:22 AM | #31 | |||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
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Science can't currently explain everything about creativity, but that just shows where more work needs to be done. But it does know a lot already. It knows that someone with a very active corpus callosum is more likely to exhibit creativity and genius. It knows a lot about which areas of the brain handle various functions, including various aspects of creativity. It studies the history of art and why we find certain art better than others. It studies the appreciation of music in certain non-human animals, and compares those results to humans. Quote:
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03-12-2019, 09:12 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
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Because particularly in a case like a "difference between talent and genius" it's actually quite plausible to assert the reason you can't analyze the difference is there isn't one. A difference that "can't be put into words" often can't because it isn't objectively real. There's a good reason a lot of science (or for that matter philosophy or theology or literary criticism or anything else remotely analytic) seems to devolve into semantic arguments. Clear definitions are an essential first step to actually understanding anything.
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03-12-2019, 10:08 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
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03-12-2019, 01:00 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
Agreed and in things like magic, usefully clear definitions might not be available. And if Magic involves subjective considerations, working for clear definitions might be pointless. Think about Dead Poets Society and the geometric formula for the worth of a poem. The terms were presents as fixed and clear but they utterly abstract and presented as concrete.
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03-12-2019, 01:05 PM | #35 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
For a great semantic argument watch Dragonfire. The sequence ending with "An Existentialist!" is wonderful.
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03-12-2019, 02:22 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
Magic as "undefinable something" often features in space opera. We do not know how the Prophets stopped the Jem'hadder fleet at the last moment. Nor what Q does. Or whatever. We do not know how Vorlons keep Jack the Ripper alive. Sufficiently Advanced Aliens are indistinguishable from gods.
Having mages working by formula in the Banestorm manner probably would not work in Sci-Fi and indeed I rather don't like it in Banestorm. That type of magic has less wonder in it then gadgets do.
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03-14-2019, 12:18 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Helmouth, The Netherlands
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
Chakotay in ST: Voyager use Spirit Magic on several occasions.
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03-14-2019, 07:26 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
That's a good example.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
03-14-2019, 11:28 AM | #39 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
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The practice of magical traditions is one thing; you can do that whether magic is real or not. I think this thread is asking specifically about known-to-be-working magic combined with space opera. |
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03-14-2019, 01:14 PM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Magic in Space Opera
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That said, a spirit quest, even an ambiguously real one could fit.
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