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Discussion on: The difference between code and magic 🧙‍♀️🧙‍♂️

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Jason C. McDonald • Edited

One of my perennial favorite cartoons is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and I always find it humorous how much unicorn magic in that show does behave like computer code.

  • A spell must be written down in at least one place before it can be cast, although if this "source" exists, it can be cast from memory. (Episode 65, 116/117, 167)

  • Destroying the last copy of the "source" means the spell can no longer be cast. (Episode 116/117)

  • Running a spell without verifying what it will do can have unexpected results. (Episode 65)

  • Unicorn magic is exactly as literal as computer code, and can have unintended results; outcomes have nothing to do with the intentions, only with the technique. (Episode 29, 55, 138, 145)

  • An object (relic) can contain specific magical properties or spells, but those magical properties can only be used in specific ways. You can't make a relic do something it was never intended to do. This is not unlike "compiled code". (Episode 118/119, 194/195, 209)

  • Unicorn magic "just works", although it must be powered either individually by a unicorn, stored energy in a relic, or another energy source. It's not impossible for non-unicorns to use unicorn magic, but that magic will behave the same no matter who is using it.