@cjd @Paultron @Victor_Emmanuel @threalist I do think it's interesting to consider the archeological perspective on a lot of olde world "magic" related beliefs a la alchemy and attempting to figure out how the world works and how to try and master it. "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" has always seemed like a sci-fi cope, but I think there's a chance that some of what we perceived as "primitive superstitious magic" was early civilization's attempts to understand the material world in a time and place where even having any resources available to do such a thing was a new thing for humanity.