Fortnightly Foray Into the Fandom: Muggle Items in a Wizarding World

[mudbloodproud]

Here it is, your first topic.

Muggle Items in a Wizarding World.

There are so many things we take for granted: refrigerators, microwave ovens, cell phones, televisions. Some of these, we cannot live without. But, what do wizards do without electricity?

How do they keep their food cold?
Is it possible for them to convert Muggle items into things that work magically? If so, which items and how?
Do you think wizards ever caught up to Muggles technology-wise?

These are just a few questions to get you started. Let's discuss how wizards cope without our everyday conveniences and what they have to compare.

[inspirations]

Interesting topic, Terri. I never really thought about this before.

Okay, then. I've always seen the wizarding world as very old-fashioned - at least, in comparison to the nineties' Muggle world we see. For example, Hogwarts has their fireplaces lit, and torches on the walls. Muggles would rarely have a real fireplace that they use. I know, Hogwarts can't have electricity, because all the magic messes that up, but there are other wizarding places we've seen that aren't any more developed. According to the lexicon, 12 Grimmauld Place is lit by gas lamps, which is an old method of lighting.

There is a pantry at Grimmauld Place, too. I guess the cool food goes in there - and the same for all wizarding households supposedly. Also, I'm going to presume that there are spells that can preserve or cool food, so that could help aswell.

I do think you could change Muggle items so that they are magical, but I have no idea how. Some examples we know of are cars, and I imagine most things could be converted if you could run a magical current through an object as opposed to an electrical one. Hm.

As far as technology goes, I reckon the Muggles will always be a step ahead of the wizards because they need more modern ways of living. They can’t get what they want at the flick of a wand … although, wizards can’t either - I think it’s [I]Gamp’s Law that explains this - but it does say that if the materials are there it is possible to convert things and such. Like a single mushroom into an orange or something…

As for televisions and such, remember that Muggles haven’t had these entertainments for all that long. And, judging by some wizard’s ages, I’d say that magical people’s time probably goes faster. They work to earn their living like a Muggle would, but for entertainment they are still the same as us, really. They have the wizarding wireless, books, games, parchment and resources associated with it. I know I don’t actually watch that much TV - though, admittedly, I do spend a lot of time on the computer. My point though, is that entertainment comes in a variety of forms.

Right, and I feel I should mention mobile phones, too. Muggles wouldn’t need mobiles half as much if they could travel like wizards. Apparation, floo, portkey … it all means, ultimately, that you’re by somebody’s side quickly if you need to be - before they’ve picked up their phone to answer you.

I hope I answered okay. I don't feel very satisfied with my discussion >.<

[OliveOil_Med]

Yes, this can be a complicated topic. There are so many devices that have become so engrained into our lives that we can't even imagine how we would live without them, even if we did have the use of magic. But I am most certainly going to take a crack at it.

As far as food goes, they may not have refrigerators, but I imagine them as having some sort of food box where they store perishable food, even if the box is not cold itself. Then each item of food would have its own cooling spell cast upon it to keep it at the desired tempurature.

In some ways though, it seems that Muggles have surpassed wizards in certain areas as well. With the cell phone, you can reach near anyone at any moment of the day. Oh, think of all the times Harry could avoid being killed if he had this device. And then there is the internet. Who knows how long it takes for mail to be sent by owl, and because of email, we can send a letter to the other side of the world in a matter of seconds.

But then, I also suppose the lack of technology in the books also adds a touch of romanicism to the story. The quills, oil lamps, and all other things the kids at Hogwarts instead of things we have in our own schools.

I also wonder how exactly wizards went about adapting Muggle technology for their own use. We know that wizards did not invent the camera or the printing press, yet they still seem to have access to those.

[Equinox Chick]

I've been thinking a lot about this recently because I was re-reading an old chapter of mine. I had Sirius opening a fridge and I suddenly thought, Hold on, Sirius can't have a fridge in his house, electricity won't work.
Now, no one has actually picked me up on that yet and I think I'll get round it by saying he lived in a Muggle block of flats, but it did get me thinking.
The solution has co-incidentely arrived just as I was looking over the latest chapter of something I'm reading for Audio fics. In A Little More Time (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/viewstory.php?sid=74095)by Pallas, Remus asks Teddy where the bacon is (Remus is cooking breakfast, I should mention) and Teddy's reply is 'The chill-Charmed cupboard." BRILLIANT!

But then, I also suppose the lack of technology in the books also adds a touch of romanicism to the story. The quills, oil lamps, and all other things the kids at Hogwarts instead of things we have in our own schools. It has always amazed me that they didn't think to use a biro or normal paper. I think quills and parchment must have made it much harder to write - especially those four foot long essays that Hermione always submits. I can see why electric lamps won't work at Hogwarts - but a biro? You're right though, quills, parchment and oil lamps are much more romantic.

I think with the wizarding world there's a great deal to be said for the 'if it aint broke, don't fix it' attitude. We see this with the development of new ideas in Potions for instance. Snape appears to be a genuine innovator as does Dumbledore, but most of the teachers (and the Ministry) are content with the status quo. So I can't see them wishing to join the Muggle world in it's quest for bigger and better forms of technology. As much as Arthur enthuses about Muggle technology, it's still very much with a 'bless 'em' type attitude.

I also wonder how exactly wizards went about adapting Muggle technology for their own use. We know that wizards did not invent the camera or the printing press, yet they still seem to have access to those.
I would think that once in a while they'll come across something Muggles have invented that they think 'Merlin, we must have that'. Xenophilius' printing press is very old fashioned but he must have seen the advantage in it - otherwise he'd be writing everything singlew copy out himself. Or perhaps a wizard gave William Caxton some help when he invented the printing press.

I wonder about hoiw some wizards travel around the area. Not everyone passes the Apparition test, not everywhere is connected to the Floo network and not everyone has access to a Portkey (rememeber these are controlled by the Ministry too). There is the Knight Bus, of course, but maybe some wizards and witches drive Muggle cars.

Interesting topic. I may have to add some more things when/if they occur to me.

Carole

[Silverah]

In regards to the refrigerator question, have you considered an icebox? I mean, a refrigerator runs on electricity, but if you had what basically amounts to an insulated wooden or metal box with a cooling spell cast on it, wouldn't that do? Since we're on the topic of "wizards are a few technological revolutions behind muggles", the ice box thing seems kind of plausible. They're basically glorified coolers, but I'm pretty sure that in the days before refrigerators, you'd have an insulated box with ice in it if you wanted to keep anything cold.
However, it wasn't so much of an issue back when milk got delivered to your house every morning or you got it straight from the cow. (Do Wizards have milk delivery?)

Does there seem to be any pattern to who drives cars in the wizarding world? I mean, in book two Mr. Weasley's got his flying car and we're lead to believe he's something of an oddball, but then the ministry has cars. Do they only drive clunkers or old fashioned cars, or would any wizards go out and buy a new one? And if cars are muggle technology and magic shorts it out, how the heck to Mr. Weasley get his to work in the first place? Does it run on gasoline? Diesel? Something else?

[indigo_mouse]

Many inventions in the muggle world are there because of a felt need. Others are there sort of by accident. Alexander Graham Bell was researching hearing and speech, his mother and wife were deaf, and this eventually led him to invent the telephone. He didn't actually like phones though, finding them too intrusive and so he didn't have one. I can't imagine what he would make of our always connected cell phone culture!

Not all that long ago we put up with a lot more "inconvenience" in our lives. My father remembers ice being delivered by the ice truck, pulled by horses. You put the ice in the icebox and kept the food cool that way. Or you had a root cellar under the house that stayed a constant and cool temperature. I was taught to write with a pen nib and a bottle of ink, which must make me seem ancient... I barely missed slide rules in school, the first calculators came in just in time. Since there were no computers, not a whole lot on TV we spent much more time outside playing. It didn't seem we were missing anything but I bet a modern seven year old would feel deprived (no Nintendo, no computer, no Wii).

A lot of times if a we don't feel a "need" we are reluctant to change. If you could fly on a broom or carpet, why would you drive a car? If you could communicate through Floo, why would you desire cell phones? I think the wizarding world doesn't have the same needs as we do, although there are certainly inventions they find valuable (self-stirring cauldrons? Self-spelling quills, better, faster brooms?).

There is also the notion of the paradigm shift, and how as humans we are reluctant to make it. For example, the real reason we ride bicycles that are shaped the way they are is that that is how you ride a horse, straddling it and sitting on a saddle. It doesn't really matter that a recumbent bicycle would make more sense physiologically - the paradigm shift was too great. It seems to me that the wizarding world, being smaller population wise, is even more reluctant to make the shift than the muggle world. So if parchment was good enough for your great-grandfather (who may be around because wizards seem to have pretty long lifespans) why wouldn't it be good enough for you?

Another thought is how would wizards manage the manufacturing process in an inconspicuous manner? Take the processor in your computer, for example, it takes a large team of engineers and a huge factory to make. And it takes a huge factory to make the machines in the chip factory! Hard to hide the building and staff it in the wizarding world. Of course this is greatly simplified, the infrastructure that supports making a computer would probably be greater than all the wizards in England!

So if you have a reluctance to make paradigm shifts (a natural human trait), magic that supports your needs and a largish percent of the population that are older and set in their ways I can see where Apples "Think Different" ad would have bombed at best.

Are there engineers in the wizarding world? Of all the professions mentioned, I don't think I have ever heard of an engineer, and the only inventor is Xenophilius Lovegood, who is clearly more than a little impractical. I'm betting the wizards with a bent for invention and innovation are not really all that common. Maybe they don't stay though, maybe they make their homes in our world - inventing, thinking different....

[late_stranger]

This is a great discussion!

I'm going to talk some about if and how wizards convert Muggle objects such as the printing press and car to run on magic. I actually always considered magic as an alternative to electricity. Wizards would just use spells to run Muggle things. Though there aren't any mentioned in the books, I always assumed there were general motion spells that could be put in place once that would, say, push the pistons in an engine. Maybe this is just me.

Other appliances, like the refrigerator, are easier - there are specific spells to perform the same task, like a cooling charm.

I don't think wizards will ever "catch up" to Muggles in terms of technology because magic can easily replace many of our inventions. The refrigerator is an easy example - who would need a massive, humming machine when you could simply charm the food cold? Phones also seem unnecessary, what with all of the faster methods of transportation. In the Ministry, for example, the flying paper airplane memos have taken the place of emails.

The only thing that surprises me is that they don't have some form of the Internet - no instant communication tool with people that they don't know - something that would have made Potterwatch a whole lot easier. The only explanation I can think of would be that the Wizarding world seems much more complacent - they are generally content with what they have, and don't see a need for fancy new technologies, which is not something that can be said for us Muggles (iPhone 4G, anyone?). It also explains why quills and parchment have not yet been phased out. Any thoughts on this?