Gsyfuy

How do I rename a Linux host without needing to reboot for the rename to take effect?

Why escape if the_content isnt?

Detecting if an element is found inside a container

Increase performance creating Mandelbrot set in python

India just shot down a satellite from the ground. At what altitude range is the resulting debris field?

Why didn't Theresa May consult with Parliament before negotiating a deal with the EU?

Avoiding estate tax by giving multiple gifts

Gears on left are inverse to gears on right?

How do I go from 300 unfinished/half written blog posts, to published posts?

Closest Prime Number

Is `x >> pure y` equivalent to `liftM (const y) x`

Implement the Thanos sorting algorithm

Balance Issues for a Custom Sorcerer Variant

What is paid subscription needed for in Mortal Kombat 11?

Term for the "extreme-extension" version of a straw man fallacy?

Pole-zeros of a real-valued causal FIR system

System.debug(JSON.Serialize(o)) Not longer shows full string

What does the word "Atten" mean?

How to run a prison with the smallest amount of guards?

How did Arya survive the stabbing?

when is out of tune ok?

Failed to fetch jessie backports repository

Fastening aluminum fascia to wooden subfascia

Why are there no referendums in the US?

Unreliable Magic - Is it worth it?

Would a culture with magic consider it magic?Impact of my magic system on technological developmentHow to balance magic?Plausible way to explain magicIs my magic system unreliable enough to allow for technological advancement?How do I use weird bouncing magic to power my society?Going from Magic to TechnologyUnreliable magic and technologyTattoo barcodes: are they worth the hassle?Designing a constrained spell-crafting system for the modern world

4

$begingroup$

In my world, magic is unavoidably unreliable, for example:

You have a puncture. You cast a spell to mend it and with equal probability either it is mended or another tire is punctured.

You are trying to save an injured person. You cast a spell. Either they are saved or you kill them.

Question

It seems to me that such a magic is completely worthless. Can anyone prove me wrong by suggesting a case where both the intended result of a spell and its opposite would both be advantageous?

Note

There is no way to make magic more reliable. It is just a fact.

reality-check magic

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

chasly from UK

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

4

$begingroup$

In my world, magic is unavoidably unreliable, for example:

You have a puncture. You cast a spell to mend it and with equal probability either it is mended or another tire is punctured.

You are trying to save an injured person. You cast a spell. Either they are saved or you kill them.

Question

It seems to me that such a magic is completely worthless. Can anyone prove me wrong by suggesting a case where both the intended result of a spell and its opposite would both be advantageous?

Note

There is no way to make magic more reliable. It is just a fact.

reality-check magic

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

chasly from UK

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

In my world, magic is unavoidably unreliable, for example:

You have a puncture. You cast a spell to mend it and with equal probability either it is mended or another tire is punctured.

You are trying to save an injured person. You cast a spell. Either they are saved or you kill them.

Question

It seems to me that such a magic is completely worthless. Can anyone prove me wrong by suggesting a case where both the intended result of a spell and its opposite would both be advantageous?

Note

There is no way to make magic more reliable. It is just a fact.

reality-check magic

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

chasly from UK

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

$endgroup$

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

chasly from UK

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

share|improve this question

edited 1 hour ago

chasly from UK

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

asked 1 hour ago

chasly from UKchasly from UK

18.7k779169

3 Answers
3

active

oldest

votes

11

$begingroup$

Sure, it's worth it in many cases.

For instance, if your car is stranded in the middle of the wilderness due to a tire puncture, using magic to try and mend it would be reasonable. In this situation, the car having two punctured tires isn't any worst than if it only has one. You'll still have to make your way to civilisation on foot either way. On the other hand, in the best case scenario (50% chance, so it's not even unlikely) it'll be repaired and you can complete your journey within the comfort of your automobile.

---

Many similar examples can be thought of in the case of an injured person. Let's say one of your battle compatriots has been injured and you're about the be surrounded by the enemy who you know will show you no mercy. Well, then it makes perfect sense for you to attempt to cure him. Either he will recover and perhaps help your group stand a better chance against your foes, or he will die by magic instead of by the hacking and piercing of steel.

---

There are all sorts of times where a partly broken object or person is no more useful than a very broken object or person. It's times like these that magic comes in handy.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Beat me to it by a minute or so ;)
  $endgroup$
  – cegfault
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  And me as well. Ah, well. Great minds think alike? (nervous grin)
  $endgroup$
  – MacA
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It's also the case that it hardly matters, think of all the millions of individuals and companies who have invested significant resources in IT 'time saving' devices and etc and then spent all the time they might have saved learning how to use it or fixing problems with it, when a type writer and filing system would have cost less...yet they persevered into bankruptcy.. Society benefits from those early adopters, but not necessarily the early adopters themselves. There's always plenty of people willing to try the shortcut or 'great leap forward'...or lottery ticket
  $endgroup$
  – Giu Piete
  14 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

3

$begingroup$

Such a magic would be useful for those situations where you are not too concerned with the immediate outcome but rather the consequences of those actions.

Rough example. There is a war. You don't particulary care who wins but you want the ceaseless fighting and killing to end. So you cast your magic on one side to win. Either they win or they lose...but the war is over! (And if the magic did nothing...try again)

You have to trick the magic into giving you the real end result you want.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Relevant username...
  $endgroup$
  – Scott Milner
  18 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

1

$begingroup$

I suppose this depends if your 'opposite effect' is predictable. In combat you may, for example, try to fireball an enemy, or maybe throw them into the air; you may not necessarily be concerned if they end up frozen or pinned to the ground instead. But you may not want to risk casting the spells if other unpredictable outcomes are possible.

share|improve this answer

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "579"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworldbuilding.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142610%2funreliable-magic-is-it-worth-it%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

11

$begingroup$

Sure, it's worth it in many cases.

For instance, if your car is stranded in the middle of the wilderness due to a tire puncture, using magic to try and mend it would be reasonable. In this situation, the car having two punctured tires isn't any worst than if it only has one. You'll still have to make your way to civilisation on foot either way. On the other hand, in the best case scenario (50% chance, so it's not even unlikely) it'll be repaired and you can complete your journey within the comfort of your automobile.

---

Many similar examples can be thought of in the case of an injured person. Let's say one of your battle compatriots has been injured and you're about the be surrounded by the enemy who you know will show you no mercy. Well, then it makes perfect sense for you to attempt to cure him. Either he will recover and perhaps help your group stand a better chance against your foes, or he will die by magic instead of by the hacking and piercing of steel.

---

There are all sorts of times where a partly broken object or person is no more useful than a very broken object or person. It's times like these that magic comes in handy.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Beat me to it by a minute or so ;)
  $endgroup$
  – cegfault
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  And me as well. Ah, well. Great minds think alike? (nervous grin)
  $endgroup$
  – MacA
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It's also the case that it hardly matters, think of all the millions of individuals and companies who have invested significant resources in IT 'time saving' devices and etc and then spent all the time they might have saved learning how to use it or fixing problems with it, when a type writer and filing system would have cost less...yet they persevered into bankruptcy.. Society benefits from those early adopters, but not necessarily the early adopters themselves. There's always plenty of people willing to try the shortcut or 'great leap forward'...or lottery ticket
  $endgroup$
  – Giu Piete
  14 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

11

$begingroup$

Sure, it's worth it in many cases.

For instance, if your car is stranded in the middle of the wilderness due to a tire puncture, using magic to try and mend it would be reasonable. In this situation, the car having two punctured tires isn't any worst than if it only has one. You'll still have to make your way to civilisation on foot either way. On the other hand, in the best case scenario (50% chance, so it's not even unlikely) it'll be repaired and you can complete your journey within the comfort of your automobile.

---

Many similar examples can be thought of in the case of an injured person. Let's say one of your battle compatriots has been injured and you're about the be surrounded by the enemy who you know will show you no mercy. Well, then it makes perfect sense for you to attempt to cure him. Either he will recover and perhaps help your group stand a better chance against your foes, or he will die by magic instead of by the hacking and piercing of steel.

---

There are all sorts of times where a partly broken object or person is no more useful than a very broken object or person. It's times like these that magic comes in handy.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Beat me to it by a minute or so ;)
  $endgroup$
  – cegfault
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  And me as well. Ah, well. Great minds think alike? (nervous grin)
  $endgroup$
  – MacA
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  It's also the case that it hardly matters, think of all the millions of individuals and companies who have invested significant resources in IT 'time saving' devices and etc and then spent all the time they might have saved learning how to use it or fixing problems with it, when a type writer and filing system would have cost less...yet they persevered into bankruptcy.. Society benefits from those early adopters, but not necessarily the early adopters themselves. There's always plenty of people willing to try the shortcut or 'great leap forward'...or lottery ticket
  $endgroup$
  – Giu Piete
  14 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

Sure, it's worth it in many cases.

For instance, if your car is stranded in the middle of the wilderness due to a tire puncture, using magic to try and mend it would be reasonable. In this situation, the car having two punctured tires isn't any worst than if it only has one. You'll still have to make your way to civilisation on foot either way. On the other hand, in the best case scenario (50% chance, so it's not even unlikely) it'll be repaired and you can complete your journey within the comfort of your automobile.

---

Many similar examples can be thought of in the case of an injured person. Let's say one of your battle compatriots has been injured and you're about the be surrounded by the enemy who you know will show you no mercy. Well, then it makes perfect sense for you to attempt to cure him. Either he will recover and perhaps help your group stand a better chance against your foes, or he will die by magic instead of by the hacking and piercing of steel.

---

There are all sorts of times where a partly broken object or person is no more useful than a very broken object or person. It's times like these that magic comes in handy.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

$endgroup$

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

answered 1 hour ago

AngelPrayAngelPray

6,59652554

3

$begingroup$

Such a magic would be useful for those situations where you are not too concerned with the immediate outcome but rather the consequences of those actions.

Rough example. There is a war. You don't particulary care who wins but you want the ceaseless fighting and killing to end. So you cast your magic on one side to win. Either they win or they lose...but the war is over! (And if the magic did nothing...try again)

You have to trick the magic into giving you the real end result you want.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Relevant username...
  $endgroup$
  – Scott Milner
  18 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

3

$begingroup$

Such a magic would be useful for those situations where you are not too concerned with the immediate outcome but rather the consequences of those actions.

Rough example. There is a war. You don't particulary care who wins but you want the ceaseless fighting and killing to end. So you cast your magic on one side to win. Either they win or they lose...but the war is over! (And if the magic did nothing...try again)

You have to trick the magic into giving you the real end result you want.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

$endgroup$

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  $begingroup$
  Relevant username...
  $endgroup$
  – Scott Milner
  18 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

Such a magic would be useful for those situations where you are not too concerned with the immediate outcome but rather the consequences of those actions.

Rough example. There is a war. You don't particulary care who wins but you want the ceaseless fighting and killing to end. So you cast your magic on one side to win. Either they win or they lose...but the war is over! (And if the magic did nothing...try again)

You have to trick the magic into giving you the real end result you want.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

$endgroup$

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

answered 1 hour ago

EveryBitHelpsEveryBitHelps

7,43633083

1

$begingroup$

I suppose this depends if your 'opposite effect' is predictable. In combat you may, for example, try to fireball an enemy, or maybe throw them into the air; you may not necessarily be concerned if they end up frozen or pinned to the ground instead. But you may not want to risk casting the spells if other unpredictable outcomes are possible.

share|improve this answer

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

1

$begingroup$

I suppose this depends if your 'opposite effect' is predictable. In combat you may, for example, try to fireball an enemy, or maybe throw them into the air; you may not necessarily be concerned if they end up frozen or pinned to the ground instead. But you may not want to risk casting the spells if other unpredictable outcomes are possible.

share|improve this answer

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

$endgroup$

add a comment | 

$begingroup$

I suppose this depends if your 'opposite effect' is predictable. In combat you may, for example, try to fireball an enemy, or maybe throw them into the air; you may not necessarily be concerned if they end up frozen or pinned to the ground instead. But you may not want to risk casting the spells if other unpredictable outcomes are possible.

share|improve this answer

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

$endgroup$

share|improve this answer

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111

New contributor

kamilk is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

answered 17 mins ago

kamilkkamilk

1111