The Wolfsbane potion is noted to be a recent invention. Spells have recently been invented, too, because Snape made Sectumsempra.

In other words, wizards are not in fact stagnant. I fail to see why they'd be, anyway.

 

Why do people have this idea that the wizarding world is stagnant? This is one of the reasons why I metaphorically flung MoR across the room.

The seven books are *full* of things being invented and discovered, from the uses of dragon's blood and the Bat-Bogey Hex at the turn of the 20th century to stuff like Levicorpus, Wolfsbane, the entirety of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, etc in more recent years. Hell even Hagrid gets in on the action, breeding the Blast-Ended Skrewts and all. Broom tech consistently gets better and better. Snape's potions book if published is apparently like ten years' worth of chemistry research. There's an entire department at the Ministry devoted to researching magic.

The fact that their progress doesn't look like laptops and space shuttles doesn't mean no progress is being made.

Edit: and I forgot to mention the lunascope, and the most rational Watsonian explanation for how OP the Taboo is is that it was a recent Voldemort/Death Eater invention. (The Doylist, of course, is that Rowling didn't stop to consider the implications of a spell that could monitor the speech of an entire country when she was making it up for the seventh book)

 

The wizarding world does not evolve because it doesn't need to. Wizards already have more or less everything they need. Why would they need new forms of transportation when people can apparate to their destinations within seconds? Why would they need new ways to regrow bones and reattach limbs when they already have the efficient methods to do so? Why would muggle advancements matter when the wizards have infiltrated in their government so deeply and can use magic that defies all laws of science?

Also, what is to say that the Wizarding World isn't improving? We know that the Wolfsbane potion wasn't around when Lupin was student, but was invented by the time Harry was in Hogwarts. Wizards have people like Snape making new spells for diverse purposes, and the Marauders creating new magical artifacts. For all we know, the time turner could be a new invention too, and the Department of Mysteries might be creating new "technology" that manipulate time, space, death, thought, love, and others.

EDIT: Also, I really need to remember to refresh threads before posting in them :facepalm

 

They are not stagnant, they just suck horribly at sharing information. There's awful lot of amazing and/or useful magic that's used only once or by one person in canon, while the whole innovation/IPR system of the real world is based on sharing as much as possible.

Also their limited numbers mean that there's pretty much by definition very little competition on their economy. There's one wand maker, one ice cream vendor, one bank, one joke shop (until Fred and George, at least), one soft drink, one bookshop... Pretty much the only part of their economy where there's meaningful competition is quidditch, and they do produce new flagship products almost every year.

 

Now that's just false. All the inventions I mentioned earlier are things that are now widely known, used or bought (except Snape's potioneering, which is explicitly unpublished - and who's to say his instructions are not already common knowledge among true masters of the craft).

The clearest example is Levicorpus, which spread throughout Hogwarts within a few months to a year at worst. Even people who didn't go to school with Snape (like Moody) recognize his spells.

Are...are you joking or are you literally taking one street and one tiny village as the entire economy

 

Maybe it doesnt, but if we go by current delevopment in "Muggle" techonolgy as a basis, in 100 or 200 years or so muggle technology will probably be at the same level as magic, if not even higher. Sure, theyll never break the laws of Physics but if we take the magical society as its presented a hundred years ago and look at the achievements they managed meanwhile, and the changes in day to day live and compare it to muggle advancements in 100 years - and assume that advancement is at least linear then one should come to the conclusion that muggles will win eventually.

Im fairly certain that if something is possible, muggles will discover it sooner or later.

If magic is a very high level but a very "fixed" high level, eventually the muggles will win no matter what, simply because they evolve constantly and consistently, while magic seems to do so at a way lower level.


(i know the post read a bit repetetive )

 

You do realize this isn't science fiction? Technology has plenty of hard limits.

It's all moot anyway; like several people have mentioned, the wizarding world doesn't lack for magical innovation.

 

Wizards would destroy

As long as no muggleborns destroys wizards, the wizards could just set up wards to stop any muggle attacks then use their superior maneuverability nad disguise to start a nuclear war between the muggles and wait out the war under their wards.

 

I'm with you on a wizard win, but the fact that wards aren't canon kinda undermines your plan.

 

People use the word wards to describe any making that protects a fixed location. It's pretty universal across all fantasy. No need to get your knickers in a twist over it.

---------- Post automerged at 23:32 ---------- Previous post was at 23:31 ----------

I don't think there is a canon word for it beyond "protective enchantments".

 

Until just a couple of hours ago I was a little happy lurker gladly consuming some of the best fics this forum had reviewed and things were going well. However I happened to stumble upon the previous threads of muggles vs wizards while reading the forum guidelines and boy was that a mistake. The amount of retardation that thrives in wizards vs muggles topics left me stunned for quite some time and in the meantime begun to gradually rustle my jimmies to the point where I made the decision to jump into this cesspit of bloody ignorant scum and join in.

I am butthurt. Actually no, butthurt is the wrong word because this is fucking BUTTAGONY here! Where the hell were you when the topic of nuclear weapons came in your classes? The misinformation and ignorance regarding them coming from way too many people that post here is just catastrophic .

But wait there is more... How can you just glide over this instantaneous "think and shield" horseshit? Wiping my ass takes more brainpower and strategy than this instantaneous "think and do" spell shielding you are talking about.

In fact wiping my butt I have done every single day throughout all my life I am reasonably competent at it, its one of my skills. What I have not done every single day of my life is FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE, and I am pretty sure that that is something I would have in common with all of the wizards ever.

What's more, I guess I wouldn't be wrong if I have said that; that is something I have in common with all of you. You, as well as me, have not fought for your life everyday, but probably have wiped your ass throughout your life. Some of you might even be quite the rockstars at polishing your bottoms and I bet it still doesn't happen instantaneously.

What for do any of you want to impose any grounding in reality for magic? Isn't it already impossible because of the very nature of it? Magic is magical! It has no grounding that's why its magic and not quantum sticks for your dishwasher.

Especially when there are so many other lower hanging fruit already ripe for the taking. For example; the spells, the spell casters, the wizarding society, the magical powers, the magical knowledge, the fact that Hogwarts is the upper limit on the educational prowess of the magical world (being "the best school of magic in the whole world"), the fact that new wands cost a staggering (for an avarage magical citizen) amount of 7 galleons per wand and the consequences that that does to their society, et cetera, et cetera.

Why in discussions such as these is there constant assumption applied to everything magical, that just because magic has no limits the people using it utilize do so to its full potential? It's so counter intuitive, because if there are no constrains and everything is at your grasp why should you put more effort when you can achieve good, even great results with almost none needed?

It is insanity to think so when the standard of the average wizard is lower than either Gregory Crabb or Vincent Goyle. Having Hogwarts as the best there is means that the standard must be much lower than even Neville Longbottom at potions with Severus Snape.

I know that Neville could have been done better if Snape hadn't been so mean to him but still, he was a potions master. Who of you was taught by a someone who had a professors degree in elementary, middle or even high school?

Who of you could even afford or would want to pay a professor to teach him elementary curriculum when a simple graduate out of collage would do it for 1/10th of the price, probably even doing a better job of it?

Another assumption that I think is preposterous is that wizards are a united force, or that they are made of Dumbledores or Voldemorts, or death eaters or members of the order, or aurors or hit wizards, or even ministry workers and would fight this, do that, evade this, relocate to there, do an extraordinary feat of magic that has never been done before to accomplish x, apperate everywhere, be invisible all the time, all cast imperios or confund all of the muggles, whereas in reality they wouldn't do shit because 99% of them are fucking sheep.

If this post gets traction I could elaborate on the topic of muggle weapons, tactics, what would happen and so on.

Cheerio.

 

Quick response because it's late and I'm tired.

We haven't seen a wizard that can't apparate, it's mentioned as about on par with getting a drivers license, something that almost everybody just does. Thats fucking teleportation, everybody over 17 just teleporting willy nilly. If you find them, a quick pop and they're somewhere else. They're houses can't be breached, when the standard charms make you find an excuse to leave, how can you attack it. You'll suddenly find a bunch of soldiers remembering they promised to meet their gran at teatime. You can't blow up the centers of their society because they're in the middle of big cities. What is the government going to do to attack Diagon Alley? Nuke downtown London? What can you do against an enemy that won't show up for the battle, whos houses you can't find and population centers that are in your own. The wizards don't even need to show up, they've already won.

 

"Bloody ignorant" seems to describe your statements very well, pycus.

 

That's...like the exact opposite of what canon says, but carry on

 

Really? I thought the twins teased Charlie for not getting his license on the first try. That seems pretty close to attitude I remember towards driver's licenses when I was in high school.

 

Yeah, it seems to be an almost universal skill. We saw in HBP that the entire year took apparition classes and the licencing system is, as you say, basically copied straight from Muggle driving licences.

We know from GoF that also, like driving, there are some people who choose not to do it even though they can.

 

I suspect its side-along that's considered tricky. Like having a motorbike or a truck licence. Otherwise people would use it with their kids all the time.

 

Yup, Harry's year is pretty awed by Harry having been Side-Alonged, and he was sixteen. And far from apparating everywhere, most wizards seem to use the Floo, Portkeys or magic bus/train to travel. You could chalk that up to anti-apparition jinxes though.

 

Except that the Trio does it all the time, and Harry did it on his first real try. Hell, Hermione did it by accident when Yaxley caught her.

 

You're falling into the trap of Thinking Your Protagonists Are Average People.

Rowling and fans can swear up and down that Harry is just a regular kid, totally. Yeah, regular kids don't throw down with giant murder snakes when they're twelve. Like, I can tell you with 100% certainty that in that situation at that age I'd be crying, laughing, running, and shitting my pants all at once.