Earth Bond, chapter 8 discussion [Spoilers]

[expedient]

Leeds from the name Leodis which translates as braveheart or Lion heart.

[SYED]

I wonder if computers will aid in teaching and using magic. Magic is affected by the time, day. season, the planets, stars etc! What if some one created a pprogram to track the believed flow of magic, using all the variables? That book is just for beginners right, proper activly casting wizards have libaries and studies.
Say the ED create this webite to store all magical knowledge. They make it totally super secure. The public and open portion of the site is just the basic and general informattion, general PR info. Each wizard would be givern an ID and password, with access depending on their ability and record. A magical encyclopedia, filled with cross referenced texts and tables and lore would help alot. Or restric the system to the island, but allow proven and trusstworty wizards their deserving access.
If there was a website for wizards they could bargin, barter or negotiate deals in the forums, or sell items to each other.
Jenny said you had to be master of many disciplines, so imagine a database that contains that knowledge as well.

[konman]

The Earth Dragons can make magical objects and they also make their own computers. Thus you should be able to make a magical computer but enchanting a computer made by an earth dragon. What are the possibilities for a magic computer? Will it be able to hack another computer for you? Or a super secure computer that will only allow certain people or magicians to access it.

[Fel]

Very limited.

Magic can't affect what's not real, and that includes programs. So there won't be any magic self-hacking computers.

But, they could build a computer that magically won't allow anyone but allowed people use it in a physical manner, like depress keys on the keyboard or move the mouse.

[heustess]

I already have a magic computer like that. Each day without a new Fel story, all I can press is the depress key (right next to the Any key). My mouse is so sad it can no longer keep track of the ball on it's pad. My tower has lost it's drive to live. My modem has suicide hotline on speed dial and my monitor cannot stand to look at itself. The power cable has tied itself into a hangman's knot.

[SYED]

So senses and the weather is considered real, but electronic information is just seen as funny lightning. Its like how scryed conversations cant be translated.

Computers magivly created, that only limits the users would be very valuable.

[expedient]

If I understand this correctly, another way of looking at it is from the perspective of resolution.

Changing a small number of specific electrical charges in a computer is nigh on impossible to do as the magic caster can't clearly see what they are affecting. Casting a lightning bolt is easier as the effect can be clearly seen or felt.

Or, magic can be reliably worked on a macroscopic scale [visible levels]. Magic users don't have the subtlety to work at microscopic scales [whatever the limit of "too small" is]. Many magic users are required to produce very large effects.

Addition: Or possibly, magic breaks down when quantum effects come too much into to play to make it mathematically impossible to give anything other than probabilities. So scions work because if you know one location you can calculate another but changing programs running on electronics requires knowing where electrons are and that is too difficult to determine.

[NSC]

I can't remember the name, and I'm too lazy to go back and read earlier chapters for it, but early on in this story one of the Hunters was mentioned who had an uncanny accuracy with his shooting. At the time I read it I thought that maybe this character knew what Kell was, and was actively working to expose him.

I still wonder about that. Is it possible that the Chromatics have a human agent in the Hunters?

That's the kind of twist I've come to expect from reading the stories on this site.

[expedient]

I still wonder about that. Is it possible that the Chromatics have a human agent in the Hunters?

The Catholic Church or another organization (China, Japan, former Ottoman Empire countries) which hasn't had its records altered would be more likely.

[SYED]

Is it possible that this hunter in particular had a magical object, that improved his aim? Magic can affect the senses, so could it have improved his so that he was a killer shot. It could be an artifact that is a family heirloom or a lucky charm. WOuld be great to aim arrows, or in general for combative skills?