this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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Bonus points if it's usually misused/misunderstood by the people who say it

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What if the demon is actually an interdimensional traveller and the newt eye is the biometric lock to operate the portal device?

You're coming at it from the perspective of somebody who does understand the technology, which is not what the quote is about.

[–] Sterile_Technique -2 points 1 year ago

What if the demon is actually an interdimensional traveller and the newt eye is the biometric lock to operate the portal device?

Then it would be technology, and not magic. We can what-if new criteria all day long and assign the results to whatever category it would belong to under those criteria, but the two will always be definitively distinct.

You’re coming at it from the perspective of somebody who does understand the technology, which is not what the quote is about.

...which is why I dislike the quote - it doesn't actually convey any kind of limited scope, it just -incorrectly- says the two are indistinguishable. And anecdotally, every time I see that quote dropped in a discussion about tech or fiction, it's never done with any nod to a limited observer; it's used as a justification to conclude that the two are the same thing.

And idk why it rubs me the wrong way so hard, but it's become a pet peeve.