History Main / MagicfromTechnology

* Perhaps the most plausible example of this trope appears in the ''Dream Park'' novels, Niven & Barnes' series about live-action adventure gaming at a future amusement park full of high-tech illusions. Sophisticated simulations allow fantasy combats to be played out in reality, holographic or robotic monsters battling role-players with computer-controlled magic staves and hit-point-tracking electric dog tags.

* Clarke's quotation is spouted almost verbatim by Ted in Michael Chrichton's ''{{Sphere}}.''

-->-- '''Creator/ArthurCClarke''''s Third Law

* Taken literally in ''TheBookOfTheNewSun'' by GeneWolfe--all magic comes from LostTechnology.

** Another episode had a con artist pretending to be the planet's version of the Devil (who also claimed to be the actual Satan) who was using a cloaked ship to fake mystical powers.

** Another episode had a con artist pretending to be the planet's version of the Devil (who also claimed to be the actual be Satan) who was using a cloaked ship to fake mystical powers.

Compare ClarkesThirdLaw. Contrast with SkepticismFailure. For "TechnologyFromMagic," see {{Magitek}}. Explaining away magic with TechnoBabble or MinovskyPhysics is DoingInTheWizard. Conversely, insisting on the magical nature in place of the previous tropes is DoingInTheScientist. Often used by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens. If ''the audience'' is left in doubt about its true origins, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane. MagicByAnyOtherName often overlaps with this.

* ''The Psalms of Isaak'' is a ScienceFantasy quintet which takes place in a ScavengerWorld AfterTheEnd. Some relics of the previous age, such as the robotic mechoservitors, are clearly understood as technology, albeit technology advanced beyond the means of most people in the setting to understand or replicate. What is usually called "magic" generally appears to be a product of advanced chemistry, since it takes the form of potions or powders which can be ingested to grant (moderately) superhuman abilities, albeit at the expense of the long-term health of repeated users. The [[{{Precursers}} Younger Gods]] had powers that are generally considered magical [[spoiler: but when surviving Younger Gods start showing up later in the series, their powers look an awful lot like nanotechnology]]. On the other hand, the Younger Gods' rivals the [[AbusivePrecursors Wizard Kings]], though they draw heavily on stolen Younger God knowledge, also used BloodMagic of a blatantly mystical type that defies scientific explanation [[spoiler: as do their spiritual descendants, TheEmpire of Y'Zir]].

* ''The Psalms of Isaak'' is a ScienceFantasy quintet which takes place in a ScavengerWorld AfterTheEnd. Some relics of the previous age, such as the robotic mechoservitors, are clearly understood as technology, albeit technology advanced beyond the means of most people in the setting to understand or replicate. What is usually called "magic" generally appears to be a product of advanced chemistry, since it takes the form of potions or powders which can be ingested to grant (moderately) superhuman abilities, albeit at the expense of the long-term health of repeated users. The [[{{Precoursers}} Younger Gods]] had powers that are generally considered magical [[spoiler: but when surviving Younger Gods start showing up later in the series, their powers look an awful lot like nanotechnology]]. On the other hand, the Younger Gods' rivals the [[AbusivePrecursor Wizard Kings]], though they draw heavily on stolen Younger God knowledge, also used BloodMagic of a blatantly mystical type that defies scientific explanation [[spoiler: as do their spiritual descendants, TheEmpire of Y'Zir]].

* [[Literature/TheLaundrySeries The Laundry Series]] by CharlesStross has the aforementioned Laundry Organization using computer programs and advance math to create magic spells.

Compare ClarkesThirdLaw. Contrast with SkepticismFailure. For "TechnologyFromMagic," see {{Magitek}}. Explaining away magic with TechnoBabble or MinovskyPhysics is DoingInTheWizard. Conversely, insisting on the magical nature in place the previous tropes is DoingInTheScientist. Often used by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens. If ''the audience'' is left in doubt about its true origins, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane. MagicByAnyOtherName often overlaps with this.

* In ''Film/JohnCarter'', the ancient, immortal [[SuperiorSpecies Therns]] wield what a modern man might call weaponized nanotechnology (powered by the "Ninth Ray"). It takes the form of an easily-concealed mass of lichen-like vines that grow and adapt to the user's needs: making [[FrickinLaserBeams beam weapons]] of [[{{BFG}} various sizes]], {{Absurdly Sharp Blade}}s, and even crawling on the skin of someone else to either kill them by crushing the skull or restrain their movement by implanting themselves into the skin. Of course, since this ''is'' the very early 20th century, the stuff looks more like magic than anything.

* ''Manga/LupinIII'' had the villain Pycal, who appeared to be impervious to bullets and fire, could walk on air and shoot fire from his fingertips. In truth, he walked on air [[spoiler:via carefully placed glass panes]], shot fire from his fingertips [[spoiler:with a small, hidden flamethrower]] and was impervious [[spoiler:thanks to a hard liquid chemical that shielded him from bullets and fire]].

* In ''[[Literature/{{Manoratha}}]]'' by V. Ushakov this seems to be an unexpected side effect of the population's immersion into the eponymous MMORPG "Manoratha". The developers expected skills like martial arts or craftsmanship to carry over, since they are comparably hard and time-consuming to master. Unexpectedly, the most advanced and dedicated players begin exhibiting the first tiers of their most advanced magic schools in reality.

* Dan Simmons explores this in the novels ''[[Literature/{{Illium}} Illium and Olympos]]''. The Olympian Gods, Prospero, Ariel and possibly the other god-like powers make use of the fact that QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': Biotics are magic like abilities that some people develop, if they are fortunate enough to survive in-utero exposure to a {{Minovsky P|hysics}}article, given brain surgery, and attach a {{cyb|org}}ernetic "amp" into the back of their neck. A biotic needs a lot more calories than normal [[AvertedTrope due to]] [[NoConservationOfEnergy Conservation Of Energy]], and their powers are restricted to [[GravityScrew affecting mass, and creating singularities]].

* ''Numenera'' is this trope. Set a billion years in the Earth's future, the game describes that preceding civilizations before the current one (the Ninth World) have mastered intergalactic travel, nanotechnology, quantum physics, terraforming and more besides. All the wondrous locales and 'magic' of the world is performed through highly advanced technology. Wizards (or 'nano') work their spells through nanites in the air.

* In MarionZimmerBradley's ''{{Darkover}}'' series, human colonists stranded on a metal-poor alient planet eventually develop a new science based on PsychicPowers and [[PowerCrystal "starstones"]]. The resulting "matrix technology" can do things believed to be impossible by the conventional technology used by other human worlds.

* Subverted in the HarryTurtledove short story ''Death in Vesuna''. A hot-headed time traveler shoots a Roman book dealer in order to get a book that doesn't exist in his time. The locals, who only heard the gunshot and found the corpse, assume it was "Zeus's thunderbolt", but the two men investigating the case use logic and intelligence to figure out exactly what happened.

* The page quote is said word for word after a certain technology is discovered in the ''{{Main/Civilization V}}'' scenario "Empire of the Smoky Skies".

** ''CouncilWars'' series is based around this trope. Unlike most such examples, rather than being set AfterTheEnd when people have long since forgotten the origin of their "magic", it's set ''during'' the breakdown of a {{Sufficiently Advanced|Aliens}} society into relative barbarism.

* The "abilities" (i.e. superpowers) demonstrated by ''{{The 4400}}'' are a result of the existence of an [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain extra neurotransmitter]], [[SuperSerum Promicin]], in their brains due to [[spoiler: biological modification by people from the future]].

** Likewise this happens with missionaries. If a group had no modern theory of disease and sees many children die to a disease, they'll likely conclude evil spirits or something supernatural is responsible. If missionaries, who generally mean well whether you agree with them or not, hand out little tablets that make the disease go away, the locals most likely conclusion is, "Jesus' magic is -way- stronger than whatever we've been doing before." One hopes they are later educated.
*** Of course, a far more common scenario was missionaries bringing lethal european diseases with them, leading the locals to believe that the missionarie's magic was to blame for their illness.

** How about magic fire? It can be lit and extinguished at will, and able to burn brighter than any ordinary fire (light bulbs). Even old technology can seem like magic to those who came before.