Magic and Sci-fi the blending of genres

[viziel]

Magic is rubbish!

Okay, thats fine...we can just remove a whole genre of material and just scratch out bits of harry potter and replace it with [science you dont understand] instead...there better?

Magic is, that which we dont understand when used in a context of the fantastical (like that word?).

I suppose spock would say the same about magic...

Magic is impractical and without definition and limits and therefore is slightly offensive to those who rather have hard facts.

Regardless, magic is apart of the fantasy setting and it can take on many forms.

If technology is sufficiently advanced wouldn't it seem like magic to you? If someone could teleport anywhere in the universe or perform acts of such magnitude that your mind couldn't really understand then wouldn't that be magic?

I suppose if you consider yourself very practical then you simply rather not use the word "magic" as it seems childish? Then how would you label an act that cannot be defined or explained?

[vulpinoid]

Lets throw in the third element that often arises when magic meets sci-fi...

Psionics / Psychic powers.

In a D&D type setting, psionic powers can be even more magical than "magic"...these powers use the raw force of the mind to bend reality while "magic" uses incantations, rituals and loopholes in reality to manifest it's effects.

In a sci-fi setting, psionic powers are often a strange paranormal series of effects that haven't adequately been explained by rational science.

[BubbaBrown]

I've been playing with the combination of super science and "magical" in the setting I've been working on.

Quick Background Setup: Something strange, destruction happens and cause a domino effect to trigger the composite armageddon. After the it all, strange entities have arrived/become interested/reproduced/etc the world. They seem to bend the rules of physics to perform all kinds of feats that were once thought to be fantasy.

Extrane Vita (E.V.): Extra-dimensional bacteria, microorganisms, and critters that operate on a different level of existence and make use of mechanics of the universe unheard of. EV can use super efficient methods and has dimensional mobility unlike anything a regular terrestrial critter has ever imagined. Similar to what the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. movie, game series, and short story (Roadside Picnic - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic) plays around with.

This opens up to playing around with physics if you were allowed super-efficient, constraint free operation. You don't so much create a fireball as you condense a sampling of thermal energy within a volume over past and future time to one moment. Also, since you can be dealing with intelligent beings, you then have routes for more complicated effects since there's something naturally guiding the generation process.

To he "Average Joe" in the world, acts of EV are frickin' magic. The more learned know it's something use really nice methods to get the effect. It's like comparing the early Spark-Gap transmitters to modern transmitters: Brute force vs. finesse.

I think the whole determination of what is "magic" to a genre is in the presentation. Explain it enough: Science Fiction. Leave big gaps or use vague fill-in: Fantasy.

[trodgers]

[kumakami]