Okay... do you see this? This, for those of us who do not look at the sky at night, is Mars. It is the closest most hospitable neighbor to our planet. It's about 245 million miles away from us roughly... Well... point up. Good. It's thataway. The Mundanes have machines of their own, orbiting this planet. They have silicon golems of their own, rolling around on that planet. Digging at it. Looking to see if it's more than just Iron Oxide and sand. The poor things are getting cooked slowly by radiation from the sun. But they're also powered by it, so they just keep on going. Looking to see if there's anything alive up there.
Now... do you see this? This is Jupiter. Our Astromancers will be pretty familiar with this one. It's the biggest planet in our star system. That big red eye there? You could submerge several earths in it, and never see us again afterward. Us human creatures have some fantastic close-up views of it, and its next biggest neighbor, Saturn. Why is this? Did they just build a really big telescope to look at them with? Oh hell no. Any mundane-born wizard will tell you. We sent more machines up there to go take pictures of them in the 1970's.Well, great job, I hear the traditionalists say. Those probably wore out years ago, right?
Au contraire, my hidebound friends. It is still going. It's taken fantastic pictures of other planets too, including the one furthest away from us that we KNOW about just in the last few years. Where is it now? Who knows? It's gone beyond the boundary of our star's wake, and out into interstellar space, where it's still sending information back to us. And the Mundanes built this more than 40 years ago. It's even got a gold recording of us on it. Saying hi to people in every language we could find. The man I was named for signed it. We sent greetings and music to whomever might find it. Not because we were sure someone would. But because we are a good, friendly and curious species at heart. It's our message in a bottle. With a map back to us should someone want to come see what may have happened to us someday.
Now see this? More than 40 years ago, Mundanes walked on the moon. They didn't just send machines. This time they actually went up there themselves. It is one of the mightiest endeavors our species has ever achieved. We traveled to another planetary body and landed on it. Then came back alive. And some of those people... people who were able to look up at us here on earth and see every person alive, or has ever lived. Some of them are still alive and walking among them.The Mundanes did this.
Now look at this. They did this today. This is a thing they use to fire themselves and other stuff up into orbit. They managed, after years of trying over and over again to send this up so high, it fell all the way around our world and then ignited the great firework of a rocket underneath it. And then it came unerringly down and landed safely. It didn't splash down in the water. It didn't arrive safely on land. It landed on a barge in the ocean. Because they wanted to make their creations SO good that they could do that.Why haven't we, as a wizarding people tried any of this? Where are our golems in orbit? On other worlds? We by and large don't have the transportation needs that the Mundanes do because we can teleport wherever it is in the world we want to go, one way or another. We can literally fold space and time with enough knowledge and power. Were we so enchanted that we stopped looking up? When did we stop wanting to go to the stars too?
I do wonder sometimes why some of us in the Magimundi seem to almost regard the Mundanes with this species of pity. As though their achievements are somehow lesser than ours, when they've walked on our moon and looked back at us nearly a half century ago. I think, for the wise, or the inquisitive who ever looked up at the sky and thought of going there too, it must not be pity. But shame that we have not done so already.
We ignore the mundanes and their science at our peril, my friends. If they can do these things... they will discover us too. And no amount of wand-fuelled amnesia will banish that discovery back into the bottle they let it out of. We must be ready to embrace the rest of the human race as our brothers and sisters when that day comes. And it will be a when. Not an if. We must help them see the sense in not going to war with one another when this happens. Show them the wonders we might achieve together. Cos if they can do all this more than 40 years ago without magic? Imagine what we might to together?
Or where we could go.
Enough ranting for tonight. I've got work to do. In closing, here's a thing put together by the Astronomer I was named for by my parents. It is likely one of the most beautifully humbling things you will ever hear. And all of it is true.
Also, some more music from my playlist. Random selections you can listen to online as well.
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
The Eagles - Journey of the Sorcerer
Mr. Snow.
ReplyDeleteYou seem not to understand why we pity the mundanes, nor why we temper our own capabilities. Now.. If it is not for lack of achievement on the mundanes part and not for lack of ability on our own part, what might it be?
We advice you to seek the answer outside the realms of artificery, and we eagerly await your response.
Prince Jellyfish
For my own part, I believe it to be hubris on our part as wizards and mages. It cannot be because there's nothing to achieve or discover together. It cannot be because we've found a better way, because we haven't. It cannot be because they cannot be taught. If we have tried to achieve what they have by our own powers, then keeping it a secret is foolish in the extreme. What lessons there were to be learned lay fallow as the opportunities for growth for all of us. Fear of their hatred or discovery of us must be one of the prime motivators. Keeping our heads down, not making a big noise so they'll see us.
ReplyDeleteReasons for tempering one's own capabilities usually fall among things like needing to not draw attention to them, or knowing what kind of bad things can happen if you don't. Both would imply fear of a negative outcome. If we haven't tried NOT tempering those capabilities, how can we fear the result? Naturally, one might argue, that one does not need to be burnt to fear a flame. One might also argue that without going through a door, you may never discover what's beyond it.
I find it useful to turn my thoughts to the longbow, and it's uses in medieval warfare. This excerpt from Beowulf springs to mind:
ReplyDelete"Now flames, the blazing fire, must devour the lord of warriors who often endured the iron tipped arrow shower, when the dark cloud loosed by bow strings broke above the shield wall, quivering; when the eager shaft, with its feather garb, discharged its duty to the barb."
With its amazing military success, why did the longbow go out of fashion one must wonder?
Prince Jellyfish
Simple. It was outclassed by a new military success.
ReplyDelete-YL
PS. You have captured my attention, brother. We will not be left behind.
The bowman and his longbow went the way of the dodo because of technological and tactical advancement. Bowmen had to be, by and large, much more skilled and talented with their weapons. Used in a skirmish line or phalanx, then yes; a loosed arrow at the rate of some 5 to ten arrows per minute (if you were fast) could be used to devastating effect.
ReplyDeleteHowever bowmen tended to be lightly armed or armored for the sake of mobility and the carrying of ammunition. Easy fodder once your enemies caught on and launched some light cavalry into you to mow down your archers. Pike to cover your archers came into vogue for a bit to protect them while the volleyed you.
But about the 15th or 16th century, you had the introduction of the Arquebus and the Flintlock. And this was pretty much it for the Longbow. Now you didn't even need to risk your cavalry against the pikemen protecting their archers. You didn't even need the requisite training the bowmen needed, relatively speaking. You could put a line of alternating musketeers against your foe and take him out reliably at 60 to 100 yards.
You didn't have to get a man with the talent for archery, hope the weather was fair for shooting, or hope the quality or craftsmanship of the bows, strings, and arrows were good any longer. Thanks to standardized production, you could have a line of functionally identical weapons that didn't care overly whether it was windy or not. One did not have to calculate arcs or how hard to pull the bow or what angle to shoot at in order to get the range of your foes. For the most part, all you had to do is aim it at the person coming at you and pull the trigger. It did for both archers and plate-armored warriors alike and changed the face of the world.
One may argue over the dubious achievement of making war or killing less personal or easy. Many advancements are made because it's possible without thought for whether it's a good idea. The same may be argued for innovation in any field. Technology, Thaumaturgy, Psychology, Strategy, etc... But I've never taken the tack that Mundane Science is a bad thing because of the evils done with it. When was the last time they raised an army of dead people and marched on a place? I know our people managed that in the last 200 years here in the Magimundi. The problem is not our methods. The problem is people. Understand the people and you can unite or divide them.