There are a number of fantasy stories where the protagonist is very good at something, largely because they work hard at it, and then they enter a magical world and discover that their skills and work have a lot more impact. Often they have to work hard after they get there to apply their skills. Often the protagonist is a computer hacker and their skills, which in our world only work inside of computers, in a magical context can alter physical / consensual reality. (Examples: Broken Crescent, Web Mage. There are many others. Arguably this pattern goes back at least to The Incomplete Enchanter though success came way too easily for Harold Shea.)
So I think the appeal of this type of fantasy is partly that big effects in our world usually require big causes—capital investment, megatons of steel, etc. -- even after you know the right “magic spell”. In these fantasy worlds—and in some cases in computer networks—big, widely distributed effects can be produced just by uttering the magic spell in the right place, or by building a local, inexpensive magical workshop using the right blueprint—e.g. YouTube.
That’s probably accurate. See also Girl Genius, where people cursed with the gift of mad science are able to build entirely technological stuff really, really quickly w/ minimum tools. Our heroine does things like design and build an intelligent self-replicating robot over a period of a few days and builds several incredibly powerful man-portable energy weapons in a few hours each.
There are a number of fantasy stories where the protagonist is very good at something, largely because they work hard at it, and then they enter a magical world and discover that their skills and work have a lot more impact. Often they have to work hard after they get there to apply their skills. Often the protagonist is a computer hacker and their skills, which in our world only work inside of computers, in a magical context can alter physical / consensual reality. (Examples: Broken Crescent, Web Mage. There are many others. Arguably this pattern goes back at least to The Incomplete Enchanter though success came way too easily for Harold Shea.)
So I think the appeal of this type of fantasy is partly that big effects in our world usually require big causes—capital investment, megatons of steel, etc. -- even after you know the right “magic spell”. In these fantasy worlds—and in some cases in computer networks—big, widely distributed effects can be produced just by uttering the magic spell in the right place, or by building a local, inexpensive magical workshop using the right blueprint—e.g. YouTube.
That’s probably accurate. See also Girl Genius, where people cursed with the gift of mad science are able to build entirely technological stuff really, really quickly w/ minimum tools. Our heroine does things like design and build an intelligent self-replicating robot over a period of a few days and builds several incredibly powerful man-portable energy weapons in a few hours each.
I think 3d printing and Kickstarter are beginning to make this concept match more to our reality.