n30 Posted May 1, 2016 Report Posted May 1, 2016 (edited) You know how sometimes people in harry potter fanfiction genre want to use magical versions modern weapons? Like swords that shoot lasers or magic guns that dual as a witches broom (called gunner's broom)? Well, I figured out a way to justify the magic of harry potter or even mix it with science. Option A) Magic is a Gestalt psychic field. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_theory_(psychology) http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Orks(a famous example from fiction) http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Electrolocation(what enables them to emit radio waves) Wizards are simply radio-wave emitting humans that emit a Gestalt Field. Gestalt psychological theory "suggests that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies." When the perceptual human mind forms percept or gestalt, then the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology). Psychological field theory examines patterns of interaction between the individual and the total field, or environment. Thus, Gestalt field theory is the idea that perception is a psychological field of both the individual and environment. This field is written as a wave-function (math equation) of the both the perceived reality and social interactions. In WH40k and other science fantasy, psychic ability transforms Gestalt field theory into a field that warps reality based on shared faith. If enough psychic people with magic believe something to be true, then it will become true. The Earth's abundance of living creatures (especially microbes) allows them to warp even physics of a planet to their will. It's a scientific justification that magic works because people believe in it. Naturally any attempt to explain this Wizarding World would backfire as any scientific explanation of magic would challenge the very belief that it's possible. Option B) Clark's Third Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Science thus advances in two ways according to Kuhn. One is the regular exploration and application of a given paradigm. The other is a paradigm shift or scientific revolution. Besides rigorous debate over fruitful experiments, paradigm shifts in Clark sense occur when elderly scientists die out or retire. In contrast, Magic advances through a more evolutionary sense through random discovery in new spells and ideas of the core Branches of Magic. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This challenge has few rules other than using the word Gestalt Field or using Clarke's 3 laws. This is a challenge to not only mix harry potter magic with modern science, but go a step further and examine the social, economic, and political consequences of it. Edited May 1, 2016 by n30 Quote
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