A few weeks ago I finished the Harry Potter books. We were talking about them at work and someone mentioned that they didn’t agree with them, because of the witchcraft and spells. So, I thought about it. There’s that old quotation about how we would appear magical to a stone age man. The ability to light fires with the flick of a thumb for example. This is achieved with a tool. Our abilities are not confined to trinkets. What about the mental tools of government, management, moral, propaganda, money, trade, etc.?
Would it make these anti-witchcraft people happy if we invented a tiny device to convert thought (Harry’s spells are thought and spoken) into action. Does that make it science fiction and not fantasy? But wait. Harry has a wand that does the magic. Though he can perform crude magic without it. Because, we don’t say the wand is full of electronics and not phoenix feathers this can make Harry Potter off limits, but not David Niven?
We are soon approaching the ability to most of the Harry Potter elements real. Genetic engineering can give ghouls, giants, talking spiders, centaurs, merpeople, etc. Technology can give similar abilities to spellwork. Even a crude ability to read thoughts is available today to people who do not have the use of most of their body.
Many well trained and inventive people have stated their affinity for Star Trek; producing flip phones, easier to use computer interface, speech to computer interfaces, and much more. Science fiction has been just as instrumental to creating the conveniences of modern life as math and physics. It would be disastrous and foolish to constrain the imagination of people like JK Rowlings.