4 ms·

You don't say! :) Try googling for "the wizard book." See first result. Marvel at the book's cover, http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html http

by wfn 12y ago

You don't say! :) Try googling for "the wizard book." See first result. Marvel at the book's cover, http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html P.S. for a kinda-scientific treatment of "what if magic was real [and obeyed internally consistent laws]?", see ongoing scifi story http://qntm.org/ra http://qntm.org/ra

schoen 12y ago
The TV Tropes folks have categorized this idea as "Magic A is Magic A": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA The description of Magic Engineering in Ra is worked out pretty entertainingly, with people setting up university departments, research programs, companies, etc., to apply magic to things like manufacturing and transportation. Spoiler alert for Ra (no really, go read the story instead of this spoiler): Va gur yngre puncgref vg'f funcvat hc gb ybbx yvxr gur ernfba gung "zntvp vf erny" vf abg gung vg'f n shaqnzragny cneg bs gur angher bs gur havirefr, ohg gung vg jnf vzcyrzragrq va gur cnfg ol uhzna orvatf sbyybjvat n grpuabybtvpny fvathynevgl, lrg gung gur crbcyr fghqlvat vg naq cenpgvpvat vg gbqnl qba'g xabj gung gung fvathynevgl unf unccrarq. (Gur choyvp jebatyl oryvrirf gung zntvp jnf nyjnlf n cneg bs angher.) Gur rknpg ernfba gung gur trareny choyvp vf pbzcyrgryl hanjner gung gur fvathynevgl vf nyernql va gurve cnfg (be gung zntvp vf n uhzna perngvba!) vf fgvyy na rkpvgvat cbvag bs batbvat qvfchgr va gur fgbel, naq V'z dhvgr rkpvgrq gb svaq bhg gur nafjre.
- wfn 12y ago
  ..english letter frequency table based remapping did not help me here (and that was the extent of my effort).. I'm beginning to think that this might have been one of those autoironic fourth wall story-narrative-mocking jokes! Did you just pull a Derrida on me? (Thanks for the tvtropes article; it links to another one (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinovskyPhysics http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinovskyPhysics) which mentions "Schild's ladder"; which makes their arguments ex vi termini pretty great!)
  - TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
    It's ROT-13, try this http://web.forret.com/tools/rot13.asp http://web.forret.com/tools/rot13.asp - and a nice way to obfuscate a spoiler.
    - wfn 12y ago
      Ah! I should have known better. ROT-13 for the win!

by wfn 12y ago

schoen 12y ago

The TV Tropes folks have categorized this idea as "Magic A is Magic A": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicAIsMagicA The description of Magic Engineering in Ra is worked out pretty entertainingly, with people setting up university departments, research programs, companies, etc., to apply magic to things like manufacturing and transportation. Spoiler alert for Ra (no really, go read the story instead of this spoiler): Va gur yngre puncgref vg'f funcvat hc gb ybbx yvxr gur ernfba gung "zntvp vf erny" vf abg gung vg'f n shaqnzragny cneg bs gur angher bs gur havirefr, ohg gung vg jnf vzcyrzragrq va gur cnfg ol uhzna orvatf sbyybjvat n grpuabybtvpny fvathynevgl, lrg gung gur crbcyr fghqlvat vg naq cenpgvpvat vg gbqnl qba'g xabj gung gung fvathynevgl unf unccrarq. (Gur choyvp jebatyl oryvrirf gung zntvp jnf nyjnlf n cneg bs angher.) Gur rknpg ernfba gung gur trareny choyvp vf pbzcyrgryl hanjner gung gur fvathynevgl vf nyernql va gurve cnfg (be gung zntvp vf n uhzna perngvba!) vf fgvyy na rkpvgvat cbvag bs batbvat qvfchgr va gur fgbel, naq V'z dhvgr rkpvgrq gb svaq bhg gur nafjre.

wfn 12y ago
..english letter frequency table based remapping did not help me here (and that was the extent of my effort).. I'm beginning to think that this might have been one of those autoironic fourth wall story-narrative-mocking jokes! Did you just pull a Derrida on me? (Thanks for the tvtropes article; it links to another one (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinovskyPhysics http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinovskyPhysics) which mentions "Schild's ladder"; which makes their arguments ex vi termini pretty great!)
- TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
  It's ROT-13, try this http://web.forret.com/tools/rot13.asp http://web.forret.com/tools/rot13.asp - and a nice way to obfuscate a spoiler.
  - wfn 12y ago
    Ah! I should have known better. ROT-13 for the win!