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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ The quoted text doesn't say that primitive people confused technology with magic, but rather that some believe magic is real, which is a very different question. If someone believes that, say, the dead may come back as ghosts, he may be right or wrong, but either way he's not confusing technology with the supernatural. If he sees a TV picture of a dead person and says, "Zounds! It's a ghost!", then yes, that's an example of what I'm asking. But if there really ARE ghosts, then he's not confusing anything. If there aren't, maybe he's confusing a vague creepy feeling when he visits an old ... $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 3, 2016 at 22:06
  • $\begingroup$ ... house with the supernatural, but that has nothing to do with high tech. I'm not familiar with Derren Brown, but when I looked him up just now it said he freely admits he's a stage magician and doesn't have supernatural powers. But even taking people who claim to have magic powers, they rarely use high, but rather slight of hand, misdirection, etc. Of course if someone really did have magic powers, again, there's no confusion, that would mean it's real. If they're frauds, then it's not that people confuse technology with magic, but that they fall for a con man. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 3, 2016 at 22:11
  • $\begingroup$ RE primitive people believing photographs steal a person's soul: Okay, I've heard that, but can you point me to any actual documentation? The point I tried to make in my original post here is that people often SAY that primitive people confuse technology with magic, but when I try to track this down, all I can find seems to be "it sounds plausible to me that they would", which of course doesn't prove anything, or even "of course they do, just read this novel or watch this movie where the characters do that", which of course proves zero, it's admittedly fiction. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 3, 2016 at 22:14