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Worldbuilding

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    $\begingroup$ 'The difference between technology and magic is whether you think it needs some supernatural powers to work'. I agree. My answer, essentially, would be: It depends. On whether or not you presented it as magic, or told them how it worked by providing a (probably above their heads) technical explanation as to its internal workings. I would say, without a scientific background, they would tend towards a magical or black box explanation, unless you explained how it worked. They may not understand much of what you said, but it would be apparent that the workings were understood, and thus not magic $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 29, 2015 at 19:08
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    $\begingroup$ That's the question, though. What would they think? And I was hoping to get some empirical evidence or some other "solid" evidence, rather than just "well I think primitive people might do this". Your or my intuition about what primitive people would do might be correct, or it might not. It's on the level of saying, "If I tell my mother I'm on drugs, I think she will do X". I might know her well enough to predict and I might not. In the case of what primitive people would do, I presume most of us here don't even know any primitive people, so we're just guessing. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 31, 2015 at 5:56
  • $\begingroup$ Like if I was shown, say, a black box that if you put on this box in your pocket you are able to fly, and after studying the box I could not figure out how it did this in any way, still, I can't imagine I'd say, "It must be magic". I'd say, "Hmm, I wonder how this machine works." The fact that I don't understand it would lead me to conclude simply that it is technology that I don't understand, but, as you say, that the people who built it understand it, and that it is fundamentally comprehensible. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 31, 2015 at 6:01
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    $\begingroup$ Did Kirk have a replicator? I don't recall that from the original series. $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 2, 2016 at 14:44