Mark Skarr Wrote:As an “outside” point of view, I’ll put my two cents worth in.
Part of me, when confronted with this sort of reaction, just wants to throw up my hands, say "Fuck it" and start closing down everything, because apparently nobody actually gets it and/or are too consumed with cynicism and fear to even consider alternate possibilities that even if they're blatantly magical are too scary because it posits that people might not be born evil and I should save myself the soul-ache of trying to reach out to them the motherfuckers obviously they're too far gone to see anything other than smug nihilism everywhere and fuck this why do I even bother trying... But that part of me is the part that's an auteur, and also kind of a dickhead, so I ignore it for the most part. Even when it's screaming in my ear like it is now.
Anyway.
Handwavium defies the laws of physics. Sure does. Gleefully, even, if the stuff has a personality. And it seems to have rules embedded that point towards the creator(s) having an agenda. In the dark of night that can be disquieting, even if the agenda may very well be benign. But the Fen still use it, and so do the terrestrial nations.
Why? Because while it breaks the laws of physics it is not completely unpredictable, it still has rules and the fact that it has rules means that humans or metahumans or transhumans can learn those rules, and by learning those rules gain insight into how it works. When handwavium fucks around with conventional mechanics it does so in consistent and predictable ways. Simply by observing that we can determine things about how handwavium breaks the current model and maybe modify the model in response. We're an empirical species by nature, we learn best by doing things both positive and negative. So we tinker and we chant our little chants and wave chickens around trying to divine the nature of the beast and in the process we learn a little bit more with each line and each stray feather. It ain't pretty but it works, and every passing day brings us that much further from H. habilis playing with the burning branch and that much closer to a working model of thermodynamics and combustion.
And then there's humility. To whom, precisely? God? The Universe? Ian Malcolm? Some abstract notion of Science and Progress? What have the Fen not bowed before sufficiently to make their advances morally acceptable? I'm honestly curious.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"