High Tech Vs; Mysticism

[kvnchrist]

High Tech Vs; Mysticism

 

What if any would be the difference between magic and high tech to those not accustomed to such devices? Could their presence be kept under wraps to an entire society and what would be the fail safe if this knowledge were inadvertently revealed.

I am in the process of writing a Sci-fi story about this very thing and would like to set up the discussion by explaining the storyline. This is not a discussion on religion or spirituality. It is the use of such things, by a more advanced civilization to ensure loyalty by those they which to control.

 

The entire thing is about a world inhabited by felaniod creatures who are indoctrinated into a cult orientated police state and are born and breed to slavishly reverence to a supreme entity . They are told, there is no higher honor than to lay down their lives for this being and are trained from the time the are able to pick up a weapon, to fight.

 

Their society is based on a hierarchy of the lawgivers on the top.

Immediately below them are The Devotees that run what passes for police worldwide. Then comes the Breeders, who are actively encouraged to higher and higher production of infants. Those who produce more are taken care of by the state and gain more praise and honor as they continue.

 

Those who are born are schooled in mystic schools from the time they can remember that their only worth is to serve the being and to fulfill their honored duties as his son's and daughters. Those who the lawgivers deem worthy are destined to be the warrior class in service to their supreme being. Those that don't hit the mark are designated as breeders and are quote/unquote encouraged to mate with as many mates as possible and are held in high honor for doing so. The state does the rest.

 

These creatures of the warrior class train until they are called to service, usually between 14-20 . At which time they must enter into the gates of paradise paradise which is a massive gated city, high in the remote mountainous area of their planet. No one other than those chosen may enter utopia or even get within the foothills unless they are called. Those that attempt this are engulfed in holy fire from the invisible guardians defending the path. Of those that are chosen only gain additional wisdom in the use of holy garments and, after a time ascend into heaven by huge flaming chariots of metal. Those that ascend, never return.

 

In reality the entire planet is a breeding ground for warriors crafted, mind and body for a technologically advanced race that claim to be supreme beings. These beings use these creatures as cannon fodder in an ageless galactic war, who's enemies are designated as Evil and the Felanoids are thrown at them in service of what they think are Gods. They are trained and armored in high tech armor and are sent into battle with warrior priests that seem to have mystic power of magic.

 

What the story centers around a skeptic that witnesses the death of one of these Warrior priests, and finds out that their mystic power is only a high tech contraption that misfires and kills everyone in his unit, except for him

 

He escapes a hostel after a failed attempt at killing him and heads towards the planet of his birth to reveal the fraudulent nature of the culture itself. The story, I'm writing deals with his exploits and the exploits of those sent to silence him.

 

I have some ideas, but they really seem like they've been hashed over in earlier books.

[Marxist ßastard]

So it's a furry version of Stargate?

[HeyYou]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke. :D

 

Something as simple as a bic lighter would be considered magic in the 1800's, or earlier.......

[Vagrant0]

In one aspect, yeah, Mysticism is really just a way for explaining things that science, logic, and technology cannot fully explain yet.

 

In another aspect however, one can look at it as a paradigm shift in the ways in which we look at the world and make sense of it. By this way, it isn't saying that magic never existed in some form, just that our own perceptions and knowledge have made it take different forms and properties as a way of maintaining the "sanity" of our universe. In that the causes and actions changed to match our own perceptions and understanding of things. The part that makes Quantum Physics kinda "magicy" is that part where the state of something remains undefined until it is observed with an understanding able to define it. In a sense, it it science because that is the way things are explained to us, and how we explain things to ourselves, and because of the consistent nature of science, it is easier to accept.

[grannywils]

This is sort of tongue in cheek but follows what you have just said, Vagrant0. As far as I have always been concerned, the fact that airplanes can fly is magic... I have never quite understood it, even though I know the reasoning behind it. I am still in awe when I watch even a small plane take off. It is just magic to me!!! :smile:

[HeyYou]

This is sort of tongue in cheek but follows what you have just said, Vagrant0. As far as I have always been concerned, the fact that airplanes can fly is magic... I have never quite understood it, even though I know the reasoning behind it. I am still in awe when I watch even a small plane take off. It is just magic to me!!! :smile:

 

I can identify with that feeling Granny.... for me, it is automatic transmissions.... you spin one end, and it comes out there other, faster, slower, or even the opposite direction...... whatever happens in between is indeed Magic. (yes, with a capital M.......)

[Aurielius]

When someone starts try and explain Quantum Mechanics or the Membrane Theory and my mind slowly glazes over...it's magic for intents and purposes.

[Nintii]

To me High Tech is simply gadgetry based on invention.

 

Mysticism on the other hand is the belief in or the practice of elements not pertaining to the "natural" realm of that which can be measured by natural means.

Now it's easy to confuse science both discovered and not yet discovered or known, as being the truth of the matter and thus dismiss mysticism as mere

human ignorance to the higher logical and measurable world of science.

 

But pertaining to matters concerning the workings of elements intangible it is seen by them that it is rather those who practice or "believe" in science to be the

ones who are the ignorant.

The one's who are of little or no knowledge.

 

Where one uses technology to operate the one, you would use magic to operate the other.

 

Magic is employed through various means which operates on a completely different paradigm altogether, one which is unknown and unquantifiable and therefore

a contradiction to logic and thus ultimatelly dismissed as either fraudulent, ignorant or just plain lies.

Nevertheless, the manipulation of the forces and elements intangible by those who understand it's tenets, to them it is real and powerful.

 

There are many groups of people that live in Western society that are "underground" or "exclusive" that have operated for centuries who know what I'm talking

about ... people whom you will never meet, they will never feature on National Geographic and their names are unknown and don't appear in any conspiracy theory

and never will ... to the uninitiated.

Many of them are teachers to the scientific ... but that's not up for discussion.

And as for how this post is taken in terms of veracity bothers me none.

 

But for what it's worth KVN, there's my 2 cents worth.

 

I will give only one illustration ... On a certain night armed forces of our old army and a small zulu impi (group) were on a mission to "operate" in a neighboring

country but before the mission a certain member of the zulu group took them to a local "witch-doctor" in the village in which they had gathered.

This "magician:" if you will, gave them something to drink ... this drink, enabled them to see as clearly in the night as they would have been able to do in the day.

"We could see just as good and as clearly as you can see in the daytime".

 

There is no such drink on the market today I'm sure and all the person did was to mix together a few "known" ingrediants and speak a few words over the

stuff ... not very scientific, but as to the outcome of his brew and actions, well the results speak for themselves.

 

This was told to me by a "Recce", a soldeir trained in bush warfare and someone who had also received special training from the British SAS and Selous Scouts

who had joined our army ... clearly not a person given to BS.

[Vagrant0]

This is sort of tongue in cheek but follows what you have just said, Vagrant0. As far as I have always been concerned, the fact that airplanes can fly is magic... I have never quite understood it, even though I know the reasoning behind it. I am still in awe when I watch even a small plane take off. It is just magic to me!!! :smile:

If it makes you feel better, people with high physics degrees STILL don't know exactly how lift works. They know how to make use of it, and can work with various calculations to predict and exploit it, but they don't actually know what is happening in regard to the forces and what causes them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_Principle#Misunderstandings_about_the_generation_of_lift

[grannywils]

Good grief! Well, yes I guess that did make me feel a bit better; at least the one tenth of it that I could comprehend. But that of course still leaves us with the bumble bee. No one understands how he can fly :rolleyes: :tongue:

 

Seriously though. Thank you for that. I do appreciate it. :thumbsup: