On 10 Mar 98 -itlon at 23:22 -itlon, Christopher Angel said-itlon:

Except magic is NOT a tool, it is simply another manifestation of human
dexterity capable of fielding a wide range of other tools.  Let's consider
the following illustration.

OK, I was going to shut up about this thread, but this little statement set
me off.

Magic CAN be a tool.  Magic as you have shown it, with Simon and his chisel,
may or may not be.  Some authors have presented magic as being a "language"
that can be programmed.  (Cook's Wiz Zumwalt books.)  Sounds like it's a
tool to me...if your computer's a tool.  Others have presented it as an
inate ability.  Then, to me, it's nothing more than amidexterity, as you
said.

Even so, a programming *language* is used to actually MAKE tools: the 
program.  The system of machinery that can understand and translates the 
language also falls under the definition of tool.  Languages cannot BE 
programmed; they are set, although they may evolve into more efficient 
methods of handling different linguistic tools.

Magic, by definition, is something that can't be explained with conventional
physics.  HOW the author presents it can make it into almost anything - tool
or not.

No, it cannot.  However, magic essentially boils down to three things: 
magic used directly to manipulate one's environment, magic that makes use of 
objects as tools towards that end, and tools that somehow amplify or generate 
their own form of magic.  While widely debated, very few have posed a 
credible contest to these three basic parameters; most of the time, I end up 
explaining how arguments against these stipulations actually fall under one 
of the three categories.  Ultimately, it boils down to a semantical 
inaccuracy (for example, your reference to "language" as a programmable 
tool).

-The Reverend Prez
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