A couple of points, which may or may not be pedantic, and some rambling 
about magic and technology.

First, I think the point Mr. Clarke was making wasn't that there is no 
effective difference between magic and sufficiently advanced technology, 
but that sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic.  The 
difference is there, but the appearance to someone who is unfamiliar with 
the technology is that it is magic.  The difference is subtle, but 
important in my opinion.

Second, the follow on discussion appears to assume a strict cause and 
effect model for magic.  If you are going to use magic, you can also make 
it more mysterious and subject to the whims of fate, and less like a 
substitute for technology.  There are many different types of magic.  I 
loved the Toxic Spell Dump book by Mr. Turtledove, and I like magic systems 
which are neat, clean and consistent, but there are other ways to run a 
magic system.  I haven't successfully run anything like that myself, but I 
would be interested in hearing if anyone else has done so.

In the typical fantasy gaming world, though, I agree completely that magic 
is usually just a substitute for technology.  If this is the case, then 
introducing technology will only cause the inhabitants to decide which is 
more cost effective, and use that particular solution.  If one type of 
technology is cheaper and/or better than the equivalent magic, that is 
probably what will be used.  The converse is also true.  If magic can do 
something cheaper and better than tech, magic is what people will 
use.  Whether people use a laser pistol or wand of magic missiles will 
depend on which is more cost effective using this model.  You could also 
make a case for both being used, depending on what the user is looking 
for.  Perhaps the laser pistol does more damage and is less expensive, 
while the wand of magic missiles is 100% accurate at all time, but is more 
expensive.  The person looking for a weapon would have to decide what they 
wanted out of their personal weapon.

There are a couple of logical steps that will probably follow from 
this.  One is the use of magic to enhance the technology or the 
manufacturing process, and the other is the reverse.  Gurps, for example, 
has technomagic rules for converting electricity and other forms of energy 
into magical energy, and vice versa.  If you use these rules you can get 
magical factories which use electrical power to pump out minor magical 
items, making them the equivalent of consumer appliances or 
electronics.  The reverse is also true, you can create power plants which 
absorb magical energy and produce electricity.  They will either absorb it 
from the surrounding area, or perhaps from a specific magical energy 
source, such as a sacrifice or powerstone of some kind.

The bottom line is this.  In my opinion, if you use magic that always 
produces a given effect from a given spell, this is effectively a 
substitute for technology.  If you introduce mundane technology to this 
campaign, you won't necessarily destroy magic.  Wherever magic is more cost 
effective, magic will survive.  If magic is a mysterious force that doesn't 
necessarily replace technology, then technology won't supplant it because 
they don't compete.

Hope this makes sense.

Regards,

Pookey


-- 
Michael W. Shaffer
PGP Key ID:  0x253E28F3
http://www.geocities.com/pookey_shaffer/pookey.html

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