Chapter: 50
Science begins as a branch of philosophy known as ‘natural philosophy.’
This was an attempt to interpret the self-evident and immutable laws of nature that don’t belong to ‘human experience.’ To borrow the words of Galileo Galilei, it was the pursuit of philosophical truths written in the language of ‘mathematics’ in the ‘book’ of the universe.
It all started with the musings of Greek philosophers, expanded into a more universal realm by Galileo and Kepler, and found its voice through the analytical geometry of Descartes and Fermat.
And then, the genius of the century, Isaac Newton, came along and made everything blossom.
What this meant was:
“Author?”
“Yes.”
“I may be the Chief Mage, but… you know, being the Chief means I’m really smart and awesome…”
“Yes.”
“Even so, I totally don’t understand what this means at all…?”
This was to say that too many concepts were jumbled together for this world to grasp.
In reality, this world was at a level where the Renaissance and modernity were all mixed up. In some ways, it was even more advanced. Hygiene practices were impeccable, publishing houses had their printing presses running all day long, carriages and cars were roaming the streets together, and although crude, there were machines we could loosely call airplanes or submarines.
There was just one problem.
The civilization of this world was not built on the foundation of ‘natural philosophy’ that aims for the self-evident, but rather on countless statistics and empirical bases.
If you think about it, it could also be seen as the extreme of scientific extrapolation. Since this was a world where individuals could shake up phenomena like magic, it was inevitable!
“Right? Actually, I don’t really get it either.”
“What?”
“So, I’m planning to work on some annotations. The annotations might end up being way longer than the main text and could include parts that need a complete rewrite, as well as lots of knowledge that wasn’t even in the original ‘Principia.’”
“I still don’t understand… I’m the Chief Mage…”
“That’s precisely why I need help that only you, Chief Mage Millie Cléang, can provide.”
“Only I can provide…?”
“Yes. If Millie Cléang doesn’t know it, then it’s likely that no other mage does either. So, I’m planning to use that as a ‘reference point’ to rewrite the book.”
Unlike Isaac Newton from original history, I wasn’t planning to write in a deliberately convoluted manner. While I borrowed the name ‘Principia,’ what I intended to create was a kind of ‘science textbook.’
A textbook filled with theories that could be considered the backbone of natural science.
I’m planning to offer annotated explanations as kindly as possible, detailing the processes that lead to knowledge not present in this world step by step, and ultimately unraveling the concept of ‘the self-evidence of causality’ through this book.
Using the terms of this world, it would become the ‘magic book’ of the ‘Gray Magic Tower.’
“Heh heh… Right… If I don’t know it, then no other mage would either….”
“Yes, yes.”
Millie Cléang chuckled with glee, lost in her own self-admiration. Then suddenly, as if she had a curiosity spark, she tilted her head and asked.
“But how do you know all this…?”
“Well, you see…”
Since I couldn’t explain it as knowledge from a past life, I jokingly said,
“Maybe I received a revelation from the Lord?”
* * *
“Everyone… I’ve brought a new magic book…”
“Chief! Thank you!”
“This magic book was written by Herodotus… And as for how I managed to ask Herodotus to write a magic book…”
“Thank you for your grace, Chief! I’ll read it with gratitude! But I have to run, there’s a task from the Tower Lord! Thanks!”
With Millie Cléang leading the way, the Chief Mage of the Gray Magic Tower, the magic book ‘Principia’ was distributed throughout the tower. The mages of the Gray Magic Tower began to read Principia with a mix of curiosity and confusion. A magic book penned by a novelist? That was too hard to wrap their heads around.
Because of this, they approached the book with a light heart.
“Kyaaah—!”
“The Chief Mage has brought a devil’s book!”
“This knowledge—this knowledge! It’s so beautiful—!”
Eventually, they cried out in agony after confronting excessive knowledge. Honestly, if a regular person encountered the Principia, they would likely just dismiss it as an ‘incomprehensible, esoteric book’ and throw it away…
But they were mages.
They couldn’t conjure knowledge out of thin air, but they could at least draw out a possibility of understanding the knowledge right in front of them. Constantly enhancing their magical influence by strengthening their potential as mages was the foundation of all magic.
However, boosting a certain ‘potential’ also meant narrowing the range of options.
Every mage deleted the option of ‘not pursuing magic,’ essentially chaining themselves to their craft.
The mages of the White Magic Tower spent their lives plagued by wanderlust, while those of the Blue Magic Tower suffered from an obsession with uniformity and order.
And the mages of the Gray Magic Tower?
“Is this… magic…? Ah, the fabric of the world is unraveling…”
“All laws can be defined by mathematics…? Even the movements of celestial spheres are merely automated machines following mathematical truths? If we apply this to magic…!”
They vowed to create new knowledge from existing knowledge.
This included the applications of knowledge, proofs, derivations of new formulas, merging with other disciplines, engineering designs, and practical methodologies.
Truly grasping one piece of knowledge and deriving new knowledge from it—that was the oath of the Gray Magic Tower, which sanctified ‘causality’ as its truth.
Using the knowledge and methods defined in Principia, the mages began restructuring, dismantling, and reinterpreting existing engineering designs and blueprints.
This ‘magical truth’ soon led to tangible phenomena.
Finally.
“Ahhh! We’ve finally succeeded in long-distance flight with the ‘airplane’! We’ve flown over previous crash sites dozens of times without a single crash!”
They managed to surpass the ‘magical boundaries’ that had been blocking existing engineering advancements.
Once they succeeded, everything else was a breeze. Just produce standardized aircraft in bulk, establish flight paths, and run multiple test flights for statistical stabilization.
This was a routine operation for the Gray Magic Tower—essentially a group of techies.
“Record the flight data! Communication mage! Send word to the White Magic Tower! We’ve achieved flight beyond previous experimental limits and are setting up flight paths!”
“There’s no one at the White Magic Tower right now!”
“Where did all those guys go?!”
“They couldn’t wait for the oceangoing ship to finish and left for the south in canoes?!”
Of course, there were minor hiccups, like the mages of the White Magic Tower trying to cross the ocean in canoes after their wanderlust was triggered by reading ‘The Adventures of the Boastful Duke.’
While the Gray Magic Tower specialized in mechanical design, they still needed support from the other towers for different fields.
For an airplane to fly properly, they required the assistance of the Blue Magic Tower for mass production and standardization, and collaboration with the White Magic Tower to create the flight paths.
Only after minimizing the chances of a crash to the absolute minimum could they genuinely proclaim the airplane to be ‘complete.’
Magic was unforgiving, allowing no chances until something was perfected, but once completed, it was more generous than any random happenstance.
And now, ‘airplanes’ had been added to magic’s history.
“Heh heh, Author… Want to try flying it…?”
“No, I think I’ll pass.”
“Flying is so much fun…”
“The scenery from the last test flight is still haunting my eyes…”
* * *
The Gray Magic Tower began stabilizing various inventions that had previously stalled due to ‘magical constraints.’ Airplanes, submarines, steamships…
The civilization that had stagnated due to magical reasons was now moving forward with astonishing speed.
Among these advancements, the most eye-catching progress was undoubtedly in transportation.
“Is it true that this submarine can explore beneath the ice of the North Sea?!”
“Let’s head to the world’s center! The equator! It’d be worth any amount of gold just to see the World Tree with my own eyes!”
Various adventure novels, along with ‘The Adventures of the Boastful Duke,’ funneled endless resources into improving transportation.
People in this world had an insatiable desire to see the hidden wonders of this planet with their own eyes.
The Arctic, the oceans, jungles, deserts… Places once thought to be unreachable were being explored one by one. Countless travelogs and adventure tales were simultaneously published by various publishers, and they flew off the shelves.
Curiosity about the unknown, a passion for exploration, and a fear of the vast and overwhelming nature…
Now, the people of this world could imagine the ‘universe’ from a more concrete and realistic perspective. Their understanding of the ‘worldview’ had widened.
I planned to give that imagination a little nudge towards a more ‘literary’ direction.
“Since we have novels by Jules Verne, we should have some from Herbert George Wells too…”
All thanks to the power of the science fiction genre.
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