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I know we've discussed thresholds before, but it occurs to me that they have some precedent in fantasy stories, such as C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. There is also a threshold type of thing in Giffen's Zodiac, which is what I would call a fantasy story as opposed to sci fi.
Wormholes are thresholds of sorts. I don't know if current sci fi is still using transporters (or whatever they were called in Star Trek) or if there are thresholds to jump through when you want to go somewhere.
So I was thinking it would be quite cool, to me, if the thresholds break down on a scientific basis, but got restored through magical means. Still looking to get magic into the Legion.
posted
Not to contradict Mr. Clarke, but I think the very concept of magic is that science *cannot* explain it - no matter how advanced. Otherwise it wouldn't be "magical" would it?
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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Without being too argumentative, I don't think I am ready to classify anything I do not understand as magic, and those I do as science. Of course that begs defining magic...but I hear my mother calling.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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My friend L. Neil Smith, an SF writer -- nearly 20 books, the latest being "The American Zone" -- makes his own potent rejoinder to Clarke (quoting from memory):
"Any sufficiently advanced technology resembles advanced technology. Once an individual or a culture has understood what 'technology' or 'science' means, magical thinking stops entering into such matters in the first place."
I always saw the likes of the White Witch and the sorcerors' world as defending and using some arcane knowledge and mental disciplines, not a "magic" that transcends scientific knowledge.
Vast continents of matters yet to be understood exist even within our own brains, as to how they work, and I doubt even those issues will be fully explored a thousand years hence.
From: Starhaven Consulate, City of Angels | Registered: Jul 2003
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The Thresholds may not be magic, but Shikari's abilities have caused Brainy some unease since he doesn't really understand them.
From: New York, NY | Registered: Jul 2003
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There is "science" involved in harnessing the energies involved in the thresholds. The actual navigation through them depends on the Kwai's abilities or powers, which, indeed Brainy does not understand - at least not to his liking, as revealed in Legion Lost.
Where the science ends and the Kwai powers begin is something I don't quite grasp myself. I wonder what would happen if somebody went through a threshold portal without a Kwai guide? Would they be lost? Lost forever? Go insane? Would it be like the Space Rift, with different people having entirely different experiences?
I could envision a character who, somehow, is able to open - and navigate - these threshold portals with his/her own powers - and my inclination would be to make it someone like a White Witch or Mordru character, rather than someone who had some dimension or space-hopping power.
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