Magic and Technology

 Magic and Technology Don't Mix

I've heard this many times, and I don't believe it. The conceit is that, since magic exists,  there's no reason for technology to advance. After all, magic does it better, does it easier, does it faster.

Sure. Except that's not even remotely true.

How much teaching does it take to get even a modicum of skill in magic? How much does it cost to get trained? Where do you need to go for that training? How many years to get good? What are the restrictions on spell casting? Do you need to register to be a mage and be allowed to cast certain spells? How long to learn the proper spells?

Sure. Developing certain technologies may take time, but the thing about technology is that it builds upon itself. And once something's been developed, it's not too hard to learn the foundations. For example? Steam technology existed in ancient Greece. They started doing all sorts of interesting things with steam. Given time and peace, who knows where they could have been by the middle ages?

The other thing with technology is that it can be replicated. Someone who knows how to make, for instance, a wagon, can make wagons, and just sell them / hand them out. They're a commodity.  Is that normally possible with magic? Not really.

Also, there's demand. If your community can't afford a mage, having the tools to do the thing yourself is the next best thing. Commoners and merchant class are more likely to look at the cheaper route -- tools -- than go to an elite to get magic done.

Then, of course, there's combining the two -- what I tend to call 'Thaumatech' and 'Occultech'.  Thaumatech is more the arcane side of things, rotes and 'science' based magic, while occultech is what I call magic which delves into the mysterious and potentially dangerous side of the supernatural. For instance, you might have a mage with a pair of glasses with prismatic lenses crafted to see arcane energies, versus someone who has a pair of goggles with fluids from the eyes of a terrible creature, which allows you to see the spirit world.  Basically, magic as science vs magic as art.

I've seen too many excuses for why magic and tech don't go alongside one another, and the biggest excuse is deus ex machina.  "The gods wipe society out when they get too advanced".  "The nobility / mages / clergy crush scientific advancement". That kind of thing.

Which is, to say, "I don't wanna". It isn't that the two don't work together, it's that the person doing the world building has it in mind that it simply won't, and then are making excuses as to why after the fact. They could have just as easily said 'sure, why not?' and let it be.

It's sort of like how a lot of fantasy games don't allow guns, even if the "time period" of the setting has things which came after firearms. "Oh, this is a Renaissance setting", but ... without the advancements of the actual Renaissance. Or Victorian, but without the advancements of the Victorian period. That'd be like setting a game in the 1960s, without vehicles.  Why's it in the 1960s again?

I've currently got a setting that's spanned over 200 years. In that time it's gone from pre-middle ages, to middle ages, to the Renaissance, up now into the Industrial age. It's not gone completely there, but a group of characters did go to a region which was much like Victorian London, complete with a miasma of the dead haunting the streets at night and people using occultech to combat these spirits. Think Victorian Ghostbusters, and you're not far off.

One thing I do like to ask for some settings.
"Do you have ships?"
"How do the ships defend themselves when there's no magic?"
It's amazing to watch the excuses fly, and the mental gymnastics that come about as they try to explain how galleon to galleon combat occurs without cannons.

Anyway. That's my thoughts on the matter. Your thoughts are welcome in the comments!  Pax!