Luke
“A computer for magicians?” I asked. “You can do that? Make a computer that works with magic?”
“I…” Zack hesitated. “Well, we certainly could make a computer that works with magic. But I don’t know if it would be powerful enough to run everyday tasks. A computer that powerful, that interacts with magic properly… we’d be pushing all sorts of limits. Not to mention the shear amount of work that would go into designing any personal computer from scratch like that.”
“Given enough time, I have no doubt we could make it work,” Aiinacs said, “As for market, many people find it difficult to choose between magic and modern technology. If we can allow them to have both…”
“I don’t know…” Zack looked at me. “Luke, you’ve been in magical communities, right? Think people would go for it?”
I nodded. “I would, for sure. And…” I thought for a moment. “Hospitals and police stations often have an old computer in the basement so they can communicate with other facilities. They break down a lot, so I imagine they’d like to replace them with something more durable.”
“Hmmm…”
It’s hard to really get away from computers completely. Magic-users tend to stay away from the big cities where technology is used heavily, but since the big cities tend to be hubs for business and government, magic-users still need to go there sometimes. And I knew from experience that it can be a real pain. Not the headaches that come from the interference, so much. It’s more the policies set up. City-wide bans on the use of magic, magic-users commonly thrown out of stores as soon as anything goes wrong with a piece of technology…
If someone’s magic ruins a TV or something, it’s nearly impossible to prove or disprove it. A lot of places will simply not allow magic-users inside at all. Discriminatory, but not as bad as the people who capitalize on it, setting up electronics shops in areas frequented by magic-users, filling them with defective products, and then convincing customers that their magic must have broken it, and they need to pay for it.
With magic-friendly computers, a lot of those issues could be solved. The divide between magic-users and non-magic-users could be lessened, and with it, perhaps, some of the racial issues, as well, as the more magically-inclined species can begin to embrace the modern, technology-filled way of life of less magically-inclined species like humans.
The world is about to change. Be ready.
That was the last thing Luce told me. Maybe this is what he was referring to, I thought, If they succeed… there’s no doubt this could change the world.
“We’d need to design every component ourselves,” Zack said, “CPU, graphics, RAM, everything would need to be custom-designed.”
“We can start from open source designs for some things. Modify them as needed. Perhaps enlist the help of someone more experienced in processor design. I won’t deny it will be a heavy workload, and it likely won’t be commercially viable for a few years, but it has great promise. It could be just what we need to secure funding.”
“I don’t know…” Zack rubbed his chin.
“Go for it,” I told him, “You can do it. I’m sure of it. You’re–you’re going to change the world.”
“Heh. You’re awfully confident.” He sighed, smiling. “Fine. At the very least, it’ll let us keep our funding a while longer.”