Technomancer Inspirations

Here are some of the shows, stories, and franchises that have inspired me in science fiction and technomancy, often with the application of Clarke’s third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

 

Star Trek:  I’ve not watched every episode of every season, but I have watched a lot of them.  I first started on Star Trek, the Next Generation, and I wanted to live on the Enterprise D.  Many entities over the years have technology that the user claims as magic, and/or it is revered as magic.  I’ve always been inspired by the Federation’s use of technology for the betterment of themselves and those around them.  Inspired by their engineers, using technology to solve seemingly impossible problems.

Stargate:  Many of the advanced races have technology that is often mistaken for magic (intentionally and unintentionally).  Goa’uld tell all their servants that their technology is magic, and enhance this impression by using devices that they wield to heal or destroy with hand gestures.  The Asgard are revered as gods, and they only go with it until the people they are dealing with it are advanced enough to handle the concepts of beings with advanced technology.

Babylon 5:  This is where I got my frontpage quote.  Aside from the myriad groups encountered, there is a group known as the Technomages who intentionally focus their technological development on trying to create the illusion of magic.  They are respected (or feared) depending on who they interact with and how.

Neuromancer:  This kinda feeds my cyberpunk aesthetic side.  Technology integrated as an essential part of daily life, so commonplace that it isn’t always even noticed.  A virtual world that is vast and connected with many places in the real world.  This one is relatively recent for me, but a lot of movies and shows I’ve loved over the years were clearly inspired by it (The Matrix and Code Lyoko come to mind).

Farscape:  Another one of my favorite space operas, following an astronaut named John Crichton as he tries to find his way home among the vast diversity of space and interstellar societies.  All sorts of technological wackiness, especially when there are beings so advanced that they created living ships with personalities of their own, made to be bonded with another species to act as Pilots.

Dragonriders of Pern:  Explorers of another planet genetically engineered local wildlife into flying, firebreathing, teleporting, telepathic dragons in order to combat an aerial threat to their society known as Thread.  Technology and society breaks down into a feudal structure over time, allowing them to combat the Thread with generations of dragonriders bonded to their dragons.

 

There are many others I’ve come across in my reading and viewing, but these are the main ones that first come to mind.

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