Who else thinks Magic is a d*ck?

[Tom Sewell 268]

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

It could still technically be the case, the fact that magic energy flows between the two halves could suggest that the 2 wills are working together to maintain balance.

Sounds to me like the reason for the imbalance between the two halves may be is that there isn't enough magic being used in the Moperville half. Much like the buildups suffered by Elliot, the whole world-half is getting oversaturated with unprocessed magic. Which would mean either "magic itself" is not only a dick but a stupid dick because it's "solution" would only make the problem worse for everyone, including "magic itself."

[Scotty 1,061]

15 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Sounds to me like the reason for the imbalance between the two halves may be is that there isn't enough magic being used in the Moperville half. Much like the buildups suffered by Elliot, the whole world-half is getting oversaturated with unprocessed magic. Which would mean either "magic itself" is not only a dick but a stupid dick because it's "solution" would only make the problem worse for everyone, including "magic itself."

No, Moperville is one point of many in the world where magic energy flows from one half to the other, Andrea stated the that area where the energy enters their half has seen a significant drop in energy to the point where people have been leaving to other areas with more energy. There are other points where magic can flow between the halves so there is no danger of oversaturating the entire half of the world, but the area around Moperville will be oversaturated until Pandora removes the clog.

[Don Edwards 548]

That's assuming Pandora can remove the clog. Which may or may not be the true, without regard to whether or not she caused it in the first place.

I could easily imagine Tedd being the only one (of all the characters we've met) even capable of removing it... and he doesn't yet have sufficient understanding of his own nature to even begin to figure out how.

(Or, at the alternate extreme, Elliot and Ellen stand in exactly the right spot and simultaneously do a Tamashii Gekido. Then the clog opens and in the flood of magic energy they are swept through to the other side, where they have adventures until Tara and Andrea catch up with them and show them the way home.)

[Tom Sewell 268]

Another possibly crackpot theory: Elliot might be the cause of the clog. Remember when Voltaire said after his Plan A failed that if it had succeeded he would have accomplished his goal with just one murder?

Okay, weak, unless Voltaire is the agent of "magic itself"--or is the real "magic itself" -- That is, the real phony "magic itself."

[animalia 64]

9 hours ago, JustBecauseICantDraw said:

Didn't Tedd's dad give a really good explanation for why Tedd shouldn't expose magic to everyone's gaze? Bomb suits and rocket launchers?

Might be nice to hear the griffins opinion on the matter, but I don't know if a world so horrifying that a magic griffin that could easily defeat a hippo does not get considered a warrior is necessarily a vote in favour of open magic.

But that is only because of the way Magic works now. And it has been clearly stated that magic BOTH has a will and can CHANGE THE RULES BY WHICH IT WORKS. All magic needs to do is implement a rule that says if you abuse its power you lose access to magic. No other changes are necessary.

As for why I feel so strongly about this has anyone ever seen Inherit The Wind? In it a character tries to overlook fossil evidence (among others) by pointing out God/The Creator created the rules for how the world worked and could change them as well. I forget where I heard the counterargument but the point remains only a d*ck would go about change the rules willy nilly just to make it harder for its creations to use the brains it gave them. Or as I feel like saying evrytime I hear this argument "God gave you a brain. Use it!"

[exterminator 37]

What if The Will of Magic^TM is working in a limited energy system?

There are far fewer ways of creating magic energy that there are ways to burn it. What happens when you have a lot more people burning energy that you have ways to create it? That you eventually run off of energy. And if we add that TWoM may depend of that energy to just exist, then I see why it goes out of its way to keep a reduced number of users. Every time there are more people burning energy that energy is produced, it has the danger of dying, so he changes the rules about what can burn magic energy, buying itself time to replenish it, and going back to a sustainable number of magic users.

[malloyd 23]

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 0:59 PM, exterminator said:

What if The Will of Magic^TM is working in a limited energy system?

There are far fewer ways of creating magic energy that there are ways to burn it. What happens when you have a lot more people burning energy that you have ways to create it? That you eventually run off of energy. And if we add that TWoM may depend of that energy to just exist, then I see why it goes out of its way to keep a reduced number of users. Every time there are more people burning energy that energy is produced, it has the danger of dying, so he changes the rules about what can burn magic energy, buying itself time to replenish it, and going back to a sustainable number of magic users.

It's more logical than magic is a hipster anyway.  Strategically though, what it ought to do is let people find out all about magic, but change the rules just enough that it's difficult for anybody to pull in enough energy to do anything.  Then wait for somebody to develop necronium fission NEMA reactors or a process for turning sunlight into liquid magic fuel so they can do something useful with it, and expand the energy available for you too.  Hm, maybe worlds that have built entire technologies around magic are the ones where the local Magic God figured that out.

[Tom Sewell 268]

1 hour ago, malloyd said:

Then wait for somebody to develop necronium fission NEMA reactors

For those of you who have never seen a copy of GURPS Technomancer, the Earth with NEMA reactors also has certain unpleasant magic-induced problems such as toxic zombies, atomic liches, Stalin coming back to (un)life, and killer penguins. 

[Don Edwards 548]

Those killer penguins are real, as far as herring are concerned.

[Vorlonagent 442]

...which means the mightiest tree in the forest feels safer...

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

On 8/10/2016 at 0:46 PM, Vorlonagent said:

...which means the mightiest tree in the forest feels safer...

Utnill we cut it up to make decks. . . .

[Vorlonagent 442]

4 minutes ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

Utnill we cut it up to make decks. . . .

Ah but how will you cut it down if you are "herring impaired"?...

[The Old Hack 2,450]

17 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Ah but how will you cut it down if you are "herring impaired"?...

Gimme that.

/me snatches mlooney's list

/me adds Vorlonagent to The List

/me returns List to mlooney

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

1 minute ago, The Old Hack said:

Gimme that.

/me snatches mlooney's list

/me adds Vorlonagent to The List

/me returns List to mlooney

I strongly suspect VorlonAgent is already on the List.  Now he's on it at least twice.  This can't be good.

I did, somehow, end up with two separate memberships in the 2073 WorldCon in Minneapolis, not sure how they'll deal with it.  Will I get two votes on the Hugo awards that year, for example?  I have absolutely no doubt they'll win the bid, with this long a campaign behind it.  :-)

[Vorlonagent 442]

13 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Gimme that.

/me snatches mlooney's list

/me adds Vorlonagent to The List

/me returns List to mlooney

If the mightiest tree in the forest falls down and there was nobody there to chop it, it could not have been herrd by anyone...

 

13 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

I did, somehow, end up with two separate memberships in the 2073 WorldCon in Minneapolis, not sure how they'll deal with it.  Will I get two votes on the Hugo awards that year, for example?  I have absolutely no doubt they'll win the bid, with this long a campaign behind it.  :-)

Your best bet is time travel.   Make use of both memberships.

[animalia 64]

Well this has gone off the rails.

[Arcanimus 31]

I'm fairly certain magic is actually a duck. A certain demonic duck.

[The Old Hack 2,450]

I can get behind that idea. The Demonic Duck is the Gooniverse's Demon Xanth, the Source of Magic.

[mlooney 3,423]

On 8/13/2016 at 4:52 AM, animalia said:

Well this has gone off the rails.

If you expect a forum with out topic drift, dude, you are in the way wrong place.

[Arcanimus 31]

4 minutes ago, mlooney said:

If you expect a forum with out topic drift, dude, you are in the way wrong place.

Indeed. Topic drift is like aging. Inevitable, and all you can do is try and course correct along the way.

[Tom Sewell 268]

1 hour ago, Arcanimus said:

I'm fairly certain magic is actually a duck. A certain demonic duck.

I think you're mixing it up. Mind your I's and Q's.

57 minutes ago, The Old Hack said:

I can get behind that idea. The Demonic Duck is the Gooniverse's Demon Xanth, the Source of Magic.

Gooniverse? Nah, that's a lesser member of the Spielberg group.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

6 hours ago, Arcanimus said:

Indeed. Topic drift is like aging. Inevitable, and all you can do is try and course correct along the way.

As recently as half a century ago, respectable scientists publicly denounced the theory of topic drift.

[animalia 64]

42 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

As recently as half a century ago, respectable scientists publicly denounced the theory of topic drift.

I've heard topic drift causes earthquakes. (Damn it now I'M doing it)

[The Old Hack 2,450]

1 hour ago, animalia said:

I've heard topic drift causes earthquakes. (Damn it now I'M doing it)

At the very least it causes forumquakes.

[Scotty 1,061]

10 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I think you're mixing it up. Mind your I's and Q's.

Luke believed that Immortals might be Q's, of course Tedd's more like a Q.