In Werebeasts, we saw that:
a 180 pound man makes a big wolf;
a large weretiger is a tall, fat man;
a desert fox is a very small man -
- because of the conservation of mass. So how can a spell make a saber-tooth appear out of a test tube in Caton Road? The answer is that the mass of the saber-tooth must have been fetched from somewhere else.
"'...want to speak a few words, make a few passes, and get what they desire, just like that, without bothering to learn the Sanskrit grammar or the periodic table. They haven't realized that you never get something for nothing.'" (p. 56)
"...something for nothing..." is in fact one way that the word, "magic," is used. "The Chancellor hasn't got a magic wand" etc.
Is the whole universe something for nothing? No. It emerged from a "seething sea," not from mere nothingness:
"'...the universe originated as a quantum fluctuation in the seething sea of the vacuum, a random concentration of energy so great that it expanded explosively. Out of this condensed the first particles, and from them evolved atoms, stars, planets, and living creatures.'"
-copied from here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am personally inclined to believe there are indeed alternate, parallel universes. Thanks to the work of scientists like Hugh Everett and "explainers" like Frank Tipler and Sean Carroll. If so, I can imagine some universes existing where "magic," however defined, is real and works.
But what is your own opinion about the reality or not of parallel worlds?
Ad astra!
Sean,
Parallel worlds are possible.
To argue, as some quantum physicist do, that we cannot tell why a particle makes a quantum jump to the right or to the left, therefore it must do both, seems to me unwarranted.
I think that, according to quantum theory, parallel worlds are forever inaccessible. It follows that they cannot be verified.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree that, given our current knowledge and technology, we are not likely to ever be able to travel to other universes. But at least we agree alternate worlds are possible.
Ad astra! Sean
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