scrape_r_rational/data/cache/3ced3s.md

Programmable Magic

Post:

Has anyone ever encountered a magic system where casters are effectively programmers writing code? What would that even look like?

Comments:

• u/Solonarv:

  [Ra](http://qntm.org/ra) by Sam Hughes (/u/sam512) is pretty much that. Magic there is a mix of differential equations and programming. It's an excellent read, original fiction, and it's also completed.
  

• u/rdalex:

  Basically what Rick Cook's Wiz Biz series is all about.  Normal programmer guy gets summoned by mistake into a fantasy universe in order to save it. Discovers magic exists there. Discovers it can be manipulated. What's a programmer to do? Well...
  

  • u/Geminii27:

    Not to mention that he's slightly pushed into it by *not being a wizard*, and then discovering that this means "not able to cast big high-energy spells, but tiny micro-spells that do sod-all can be cast by anyone". And spells can *cast other spells*.
    
    I particularly like how he doesn't register as a wizard to magic-detection spells, even when he's throwing around citybuster-level magic, because technically it's not him casting/controlling the high-level stuff, whereas with 'real' wizards they have direct control.
    

  • u/clawclawbite:

    It's not just magic programing, but also the hacker mindset and practical cs applications and thought processes applied to magic.
    

• u/Magodo:

  *The Irregular at Magic High School* does this. It's a pretty interesting system where something called eidos is manipulated with CADs, which take the form of traditional weapons or are wearable.  
  
  You might want to check it out. Personally I couldn't get past the first light novel.
  

• u/Dreamliss:

  Have you heard of Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer? Almost exactly what you described.
  

• u/None:

  [deleted]
  

  • u/alexanderwales:

    The newest book (The Annihilation Score) came out today! It's got cthuloid superheroes and junk. Also, Stross is doing an AMA in /r/books tomorrow.
    

• u/DCarrier:

  [CodeSpells](http://codespells.org/) comes to mind.
  

• u/JackStargazer:

  There is an original fiction which is a precursor to a Worm crossover where a SI is investigating an original magic system which functions like this. I was considering posting it as its own post, but I'll toss it here.
  
  https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/break-them-all-original-precross.12960/
  
  I'd tag it [WIP][MK][RT][HF] for now. Knowing (a little) where it's going from the later Worm crossover, I suspect [TH] is in the works.
  
  One of the really interesting parts to me is the way spells have an exponential magic cost dependant on degrees of freedom. So, for example, a spell which is specified to an incredible degree, and cannot or does not need to interpret or guess at any other things (the spell formula has taken into account all variables) has its cost in 'willpower' or 'mana' significantly reduced. On the other hand, a common language wish, while possible to do, has absolutely insane energy requirements as the spell itself has to determine all of the thousands of variables needed to make it happen.
  
  The main character is abducted with a backpack filled with basic science books to the world where he learns magic.  He uses his knowledge of physics to fit in variables that, he suspects, people in other medieval fantasy realms would have always left open, and by doing so turns what might normally be high level magic into cantrips in terms of cost - which he is then able to cast with his mediocre reserves.
  
  The title and Word of God have implicitly said he's out to break the magic system like an unruly horse, so I expect more of the same.
  
  The OP has it all written but is posting at a glacial pace, and the index is not complete.
  

• u/Meneth32:

  Chapters 7 to 11 of [*Friendship is Optimal*](http://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal) features programmable magic and explores a non-euclidean grid space.
  

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