History Quotes / ClarkesThirdLaw

->''“Consider . . . a simple fire spell, perhaps.” The centaur snapped his fingers and a flame danced above his hand for a moment. “Magical, is it not? But I see that two occupants of the front row are puzzled, which is good, because it suggests that they not only possess a useful sensitivity but that they are willing to use it. So consider tool use.” He extended the same hand and placed a small, glittering object on the lectern in front of him. “This comes, I’m told, from another reality. It produces flame at the touch of a finger, so long as it is kept supplied with a fuel, for which my friends in the alchemists’ quarter charge rather a lot. And yet neither the object nor the fuel responds to any tests for enchantment that I or anyone I’ve met has been able to develop.”''

-- ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Thaumatology''

-->-- '''Supergirl''', ''Comicbook/Supergirl1982 Volume 2''

-->-- '''Ryouko Asakura''' on Kyon's sister request to become a MagicalGirl, ''FanFic/KyonBigDamnHero''

-->-- '''Patchouli Knowledge''', ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}''

->''"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."''
-->— Barry Gehm

->''"Witchcraft to the ignorant," murmured the voice coolly. "Simple science to the learned."''

->''"You cannot understand the power of'' '''SCIENCE!"'''
-->-- '''Baron Aloha''', ''VideoGame/JumpingFlash''

->''"There are still isolated tribes in the Amazon, the great heartland of Mother Earth, Stone Age peoples who have been sheltered by millions of square acres of impassible jungle. There have been flyovers of film crews, which surely has caused a great deal of confusion among the tribes. What context do they possibly have for a helicopter or airplane in their conception of the world? These surreptitious flybys must be utterly magical and mysterious. Or more likely, demonic... We breathe the same air these tribes do but we live for all intents and purposes in two entirely separate worlds. But would we- do we- behave any differently when confronted with a bewildering superior technology?"''
-->--'''[[http://secretsunjr.blogspot.com/2013/02/mib-ufo-virtual-reality-and-reality.html Christopher Loring Knowles]]'''

->'''Mei Ling''': Come on, Snake! [[BellisariosMaxim Don't get all grumpy and start talking about how unscientific it is.]] Science is basically just another form of magic that makes our lives easier.
->'''Snake''': I never thought I'd hear that coming from you, Mei Ling.
->'''Mei Ling''': Don't you think talking to someone halfway around the world is a kind of magic? Or flying across entire continents?
->'''Snake''': No. I think this is ''completely different.''
-->--'''''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl''''', on Princess Zelda's transfiguration powers (Codec dialogue on Sheik)

->'''Professor Farnsworth''': Now we just [[{{Necromancer}} reintroduce Calculon's programming to his body]] using science!
->'''Amy''': It's like magic, but with electricity.
-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

->''"The word 'technology'... means... 'magic'. It's basically anything that's really cool that you don't know how it works. And if it breaks, you have to buy a new one."''
-->-- '''Strong Bad''', ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail143.html technology]]

-->-- Cayleb Ahrmahk to [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Merlin Athrawes]], ''[[Literature/{{Safehold}} By Heresies Distressed]]''

-->-- '''[[VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Patchouli Knowledge]]'''

->''"If it is distinguishable from magic, it's not advanced enough."''
-->-- '''Anonymous'''

->''"For values of 'turning you into a MagicalGirl' equal to 'you having a costume that protects you and operates on principles most people won't understand, and wielding equipment that few on Earth have ever seen, let alone held,' yes, this will turn you into a magical girl!"''
-->-- '''Ryouko Asakura''' on Kyon's sister request to become a MagicalGirl, ''FanFic/KyonBigDamnHero''

->''Cell phone. You talk in here and someone far away hears you. No wires. Impossible. Even thirty years ago, this would have belonged in [[MuseumOfTheStrangeAndUnusual The Library.]] Three hundred years ago, you would've been burned at the stake for it. Some of the items in The Library violate the known laws of science. But that is only because our brains are so small... we haven't come up with laws... to explain them.''
-->--'''Mr. Carsen,''' Film/TheLibrarian

->'''Nazi Officer''': And I suppose you still aim to win this war through magic?\\
'''Red Skull''': ''Science'', but I understand your confusion. [[StealthInsult Great power has always baffled primitive men.]]
-->--''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''

->''When will Hollywood learn that sometimes keeping a mystery is a good thing? Inevitably when we talk about a reason for immortality is alien technology or a god (or magic which leads to a god). Whether you choose aliens (''[[Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening Highlander 2]]'') or a god/magic (''Film/HighlanderTheSource'') your story is still crap.''
-->--'''[[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Miles Antwiler]]''' [[http://moviemoses.wordpress.com/2010/04/16/highlander-2-the-quickeningrenegadespecial-edition-re-review/ on]] ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening''

->'''Lari''': (on seeing a cell phone) "Is that another magical item?"
->'''Molly''': "Only in the [[ClarkesThirdLaw Clarkean]] sense. Not in the [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Gygaxian]] sense."
-->--''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''

-->--''Roleplay/WeAreOurAvatars''

->'''Elric''': Do you believe in magic, Captain?\\
'''Sheridan''': ... If we went back a thousand years, they could only understand this place in terms of magic.\\
'''Elric''': Then perhaps it ''is'' magic. The magic of the human heart, focused and made manifest by technology.
-->--''Series/BabylonFive'', "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E03TheGeometryOfShadows The Geometry of Shadows]]"

-->--'''Blog/TextsFromSuperheroes'''

->So much for your magic — or should I say super-science... technological marvels that only appear magical to someone not familiar with them!
-->-- '''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}''', ''[[Comicbook/Supergirl1982 Volume 2]]''

->'''[[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Roland]]''': Hey neat, it's a polymorphic molecular phase storage system.
->'''[[MissionControl Miller]]''': Which means...
->'''Roland''': Mmmagic!
-->--''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}} Spartan Ops''

->Magic is just the science for which we don't know the rules quite yet!
-->-- '''Henry Flyte''', ''ComicBook/Supergirl2005'', "This Is Not My Life"

->The Doctor told me once if you showed a caveman our technology he would think it was magic. And if you showed a modern man magic, he would think it was technology.
-->-- '''Variant''', ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}''

->[[VoluntaryShapeshifting I've been a whole zoo, you know]]. Everything from a fly to an elephant. Bat. Owl. I've flown, way up in the sky with eagle wings. I've flown up there with Tobias. Way up in the clouds. If there's something better than that, well, I never found it.
->It's not magic. Just technology. Of course technology always seems like magic at first. Haul a tenth-century knight into the modern age and show him your cell phone or your TV or your computer or your car. Magic.
-->-- ''Literature/{{Animorphs}} #54: The Beginning''

->''"I'm sorry, I haven’t been keeping up with the times--what field of magecraft uses the term 'social network'?"''
-->-- '''Rocco''', ''Literature/FateStrangeFake''

-> "Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it."
-->-- '''Florence Ambrose''', ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}''

->''"Sherlock is a smart person written by a stupid person to whom smart people are indistinguishable from wizards."''
-->-- '''From an anonymous sporking of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'''''

->''"Everything we don't understand is magic until we understand it!"''
-->-- '''Baron Frankenstein'''. ''Film/FrankensteinCreatedWoman''

-->-- '''[[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Joel]]''', ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDpxx5UqrVU Windows 7 Destruction]]''

->"You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technological expertise! It's no different with us; we may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not."
-->-- '''Quinn''', ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Death Wish"

-->-- '' "The Sorcerer of Rhiannon" by Creator/LeighBrackett, ''Magazine/AstoundingStories'' Feb 1942

-->-- '' "The Sorcerer of Rhiannon" by Creator/LeighBrackett, ''Magazine{{Astounding}}'' Feb 1942

-->-- '''Florance Ambrose''', ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}''

->''"[[VoluntaryShapeshifting I've been a whole zoo, you know]]. Everything from a fly to an elephant. Bat. Owl. I've flown, way up in the sky with eagle wings. I've flown up there with Tobias. Way up in the clouds. If there's something better than that, well, I never found it."''

->[[VoluntaryShapeshifting I've been a whole zoo, you know]]. Everything from a fly to an elephant. Bat. Owl. I've flown, way up in the sky with eagle wings. I've flown up there with Tobias. Way up in the clouds. If there's something better than that, well, I never found it.

->I'm sorry, I haven’t been keeping up with the times--what field of magecraft uses the term 'social network'?

->Humph... I’m sorry, I haven’t been keeping up with the times; what field of magecraft uses
the term ‘social network’?

-->--''Literature/{{Animorphs}} #54: The Beginning''

-->--'''''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'''''

-->-- '''Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}''', ''[[Comicbook/{{Supergirl 1982}} Volume 2]]''

->''"There are still isolated tribes in the Amazon, the great heartland of Mother Earth, Stone Age peoples who have been sheltered by millions of square acres of impassible jungle. There have been flyovers of film crews, which surely has caused a great deal of confusion among the tribes. What context do they possibly have for a helicopter or airplane in their conception of the world? These surreptitious flybys must be utterly magical and mysterious. Or more likely, demonic...We breathe the same air these tribes do but we live for all intents and purposes in two entirely separate worlds. But would we- do we- behave any differently when confronted with a bewildering superior technology?"''