Technology vs. Magic -- Really?

A trope that does not work

One thing in world-building is that a lot of writers -- particularly those with cross-world travel in their worlds -- say that magic does not work in technological worlds, just as technology does not work in the magical world. Just because the world's technological.

It does not work. (This being the other essay I mentioned then¹.)

In theory, this is easier to finesse for the simple reason that it's magic, and it works the way the writer decrees. Except that by the same token, it shows the writer's hand much more easily if it's ineptly done. No matter how soft the magic system is, it has to be rhetorically convincing that the magic doesn't work in technological world.

That the laws of nature work differently in different worlds can be made plausible, because if things that work in their world stop in ours, we do not have to question why other, related things go on working. (If there were such relations, they would exist by the author's fiat.)

It could work if this trope worked one way: magic doesn't work in technological worlds, but technology works everywhere. But it's generally bilateral, inexplicably either way.

Making it mysterious to the characters can also work, but needs strong rhetorical work to be convincing. Whether it's a shock to those who first discover it, a tedious fact to those who exploit it as anti-magic and at other times simply endure, or something that newbies flounder about in because they heard it and did not believe it, it has to be real to the characters. It also has to seem non-arbitrary even though, of course, it is.

Some writers have gotten good effect with iron, that traditional bane. In Operation Chaos, iron suppressed magic. Early in the 20th century, they discovered how to neutralize this, and unleashed the magitech marvels of the novel. (Which would, of course, explain the lack of technology, if everyone screams about what you do to their spells when you bring iron in.)

Perhaps something else could also have that effect, though I have not seen it.

Or perhaps someone turned the magic off, magically. Or a group of someones. It would work -- well, basically with the same problems and issues as the notion of someone magically turning off technology. So it's all over in the other essay. (I shall not type it again, but I will observe that a coordinated effect, where they are separated, is a nice economy if you use them together. Or perhaps making the technology unusable stemmed from a spiteful reaction to the natural law reason, given above.)

One technique is to have magic draw upon some kind of magical reservoir. It is sometimes called mana, this usage coming from The Magic Goes Away, where Larry Niven had this Earth turn from a place where magic would work to one where it could not, by using the mana up.

Such an explanation in a fantasy work does not require that there is some historical reason why technological-based places do not have mana. It could just be a natural desert. Or more likely a pervasive lack of an energy field, just to avoid the thought that mana could just be pumped into the low-magic areas. (Fine if you like it, easily evaded if you don't.)

The "use up" explanation would help explain all the stories about magic: it used to work, and does so no more. But it does mean that your magical worlds have to regenerate it to keep going.

On the other hand, perhaps mana creeps into things made with intent, and the reason the magical worlds have only less advanced technology is that they have to work out how to have the mana creep into them in ways that allow it to continue to function. (So even a knapped flint knife from a low-mana area would break in a high-mana area.)

Then you would have a solution that explains both. Which would be good, whatever explanation you elect to use, because this trope and the "technology does not work in magic worlds" trope do tend to run in company.

1. See