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Magic rule
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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Rowling was great for branding, but not good for internally consistent worldbuilding. Hogwarts has anti-tech wards, but its never specified whether a Glock 9, a Bic rollerball, A CANON EOS 35MM, or a TI-84 Graphing Calculator would work. Each of them work based on widely differing physical mechanics. Are they independently warded, or are they waved away by the category tech?
The common consensus regarding the HP books as they are is that in a muggle war, the international community would quickly dominate, and magical secrets would fall into the hands of billionaires like Bezos and Musk, who could muster far greater cruelty and misery than Voldemort's ambitions, all in the name of profit.
The reason there's a codefied masquerade is to keep magic exclusively in the hands of ~~less creative~~ more sensible minds.
If I remember correctly it was mentioned somewhere that magic causes electrical / electronic devices to malfunction.
I remember in Prisoner of Azkaban the anti-tech field around Hogwarts was briefly mentioned, though much ado was made over Arthur Weasley's flying Ford Anglia which he wasn't supposed to enchant but totally did. Arthur's department in the MoM is about regulating intersections between magic and tech, which implies there are problems that require legal prohibitions. My read is the laws are overly harsh and not well enforced, except when the state or some official wants to make someone go away.
That said, again, Rowling wasn't great at consistency in the canon, so it remains up to the writer if and how electronics might be affected by ensorcellments, and how they might be integrated.