Chapter 255: Exponential Explosion of Technology

"Your Majesty the Empress." Murphy waved, restored the boot that had turned into a bat and flown away, and slipped it onto Suo Feiya's foot.

He stood up and said, "Actually, what I want to do has never changed."

"Since I first came into this world, that thought has been brewing in my heart, and after graduation it began to sprout; now I'm merely continuing to water and fertilize it."

"My path is unified by one principle. That principle is the understanding of Magic."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and the long spear made of twisted vines kept blooming flowers before reverting to an ordinary flowering vine.

Since the last battle with Salman, Murphy's understanding of the wand has deepened; now for minor magical effects he can replace the wand with his fingertip as a Magic Power conduit at will.

"What I truly seek is to understand Magic—more clearly, more intuitively, more precisely, and closer to its essence and truth."

"Whether I sell Magic Potions to Muggles, run Muggle enterprises, or now attempt to save Su Guo, it is all for that purpose."

The Empress placed her foot on the ground, gave a gentle tap, seemed no longer in pain, and, tilting her head in puzzlement, said, "Sorry, Mr. Da Ke Huo Mu, I didn't catch any connection between the two?"

Murphy smiled, "Your Majesty, what do you think Magic is?"

"Magic?" Suo Feiya thought, "Isn't it just Magic?"

"Yes, for most Wizards, Magic is as natural as breathing and eating."

"Therefore few Wizards attempt to understand Magic."

"Wizards merely wield Magic like we wield fire: we know fire gives warmth, cooks food, lights the dark, and can burn foes; to do all that we don't need to know what fire is."

"However, such usage has limits. Simple summaries of life experience cannot replace rational deduction and inference."

"If we don't know a flame's exact temperature, we can't design blast furnaces nor mass‑produce steel. If we don't know why fire boils water, we can't invent the steam engine, let alone build power plants; we'd remain forever in the candle‑lit age."

"Magic is the same; only when our understanding of something deepens can we use it better."

Murphy produced the bottle of White Fresh spray he had just given Suo Feiya.

"For example, White Fresh Essence can heal wounds; most Wizards use it only for obvious external injuries, but when we realize sprains and strains are tissue damage and that White Fresh Essence works at the cellular level to promote cell division and tissue repair, we can reasonably infer it should also treat bruises and contusions."

The Empress gave a slight nod, "I understand why you wish to comprehend Magic, but what does that have to do with what you intend to do for the Muggles of Su Guo?"

"Because studying Magic requires the use of science," Murphy said.

"Science? You mean the Knowledge of Muggles?"

"Science is not merely Knowledge, but an effective methodology," Murphy said. "Wizards are poor at employing such methods; Muggles can, so I need Muggles to study Magic."

"But that would expose us to Muggle eyes," the Empress said. "Even A Er Ka Yi Mu must obey the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy; are you really going to break it?"

"Your Majesty, I do not intend to deliberately defy that law."

"However, the Wizard Confidentiality Law is bound to be broken," Murphy said, launching a bold claim, "In the next fifty years it will be broken not only by me but also by others."

"Are you saying other Wizards also want to destroy the Wizard Confidentiality Law?" the Empress asked.

"No, not Wizards, but Muggles, Your Majesty."

"We share the same space with Muggles, breathe the same air, stand on the same ground; although we conceal ourselves with Spells, the concealment is imperfect. As Muggle technology advances, we will find it increasingly difficult to hide."

"Technology?"

"Yes, technology born of Muggle science. You may think of it as a kind of Muggle Magic."

"I know what technology is. But... the Confidentiality Law has existed for three hundred years..." The Empress clearly didn't believe.

"That is precisely the issue, Your Majesty."

"Three hundred years the law has existed," Murphy said. "In those three centuries our Magic has made almost no progress; our strongest Spell existed three hundred years ago, even magic from over a thousand years ago still functions. In these three hundred years we have not become stronger; on the contrary, we may have even regressed."

"Yet in contrast, in those three hundred years the Muggle World has turned upside down."

"Three hundred years ago Muggles still plowed with oxen, drew water from wells; they had no trains, no airplanes, no heavy artillery. Today their weapons can raze a city, even exterminate a species; their satellites can see a train on the ground from thirty‑six thousand kilometres aloft."

"They have no Magic, yet technology is their Magic. They lack flying brooms, but their airplanes fly faster than sound, transporting hundreds or thousands of people across the globe in a few hours. They have no wand, but trust me, a Gatling gun's killing rate is a hundred times that of the most powerful wand."

"Worse still, Muggle technology continues to develop, exploding exponentially."

"Two hundred years ago they invented the steam engine; a hundred years ago the telephone and light bulb; fifty years ago the atomic bomb; and just last year they gained the Internet."

"Technological progress is not linear; it follows an upward‑opening exponential curve. What once took a thousand or a hundred years now takes ten, perhaps five years, and in the future may require only a year, six months, or even a month."

"The explosive technological singularity is imminent; in the coming decades Muggles will update the world at a rate of a disruptive invention or discovery each month, even each day."

"Their capabilities will grow, the domains they control will expand, the precision of their satellites, radars, cameras, drones and other surveillance gear will increase, their ability to discern anomalies will strengthen, and the difficulty of deceiving them will become ever greater, eventually impossible."

"Moreover, on the microscopic scale they now possess femtosecond‑level observation, able to resolve an atom's motion; in the future they may even produce attosecond lasers."

"Do you know what that means? Ten to the minus eighteenth second, a hundred‑billion‑billionth of a second. I told you before that lightning is fast, yet even the fastest bolt cannot move an atom's distance in an attosecond."

(End of Chapter)