Question, would the world be better if "Magic" existed in our Universe?

Just wondering what every one thinks about this, do you think the world would be better if people could use magic? Magic might present an opportunity to do all kinds of wonderful things, think of the possibilities!

It'd be just another tool if it did exist. Some would use it wisely and in a positive way, others would use it in a negative way and abuse it. Politicians would use it to control people and find a way to tax it.

No. Wars without magic are bad enough.

It would depend on the kinds of magic. Like with technology and free trade, magic would benefit the people who have exclusive access to it but not to the enemy or competitors of those people. To people in the past, our Present Technology today can be considered Magic in ways. Look at our cellphones, it's like having a Magic Wand, we can do so much more and I say, our Technology is our Magic. Is the world better now? I think so, but Technology has made Humanity for better or worse.

Now if you really want to get real fancy on if Magic makes will make our world better. "Dark Magic" already exists, just look at the U.S Political System, it doesn't get any Dark Magic then Magic itself will make Humanity a better world lol.

It would become just another "thing". A tool to be used. Which I guess is the point.

What kind of magic? I mean, would it be practical magic (hahahaha) where we could just explain it away with science? Or would it be the whimsical magic of fantasy where forces from other dimensions we can't explain granted us unique powers?

Would it be accessible to everyone? Something people could learn? Or would you have to be "blessed" with magical abilities, like a mage in Dragon Age games (and cursed)?

Either way, I'm going to say "yes", our world would be better if magic existed. And worse. But overall, better.

This was a fun question! Thank you for asking :D

Interesting that your mind goes straight to negatives. I mean, you're not wrong. Wars with tanks and magic missiles, bombs and frostbolts, that'd be pretty terrible (though it sounds like an epic video game).

On the flip side, I think a world where we can wave a wand and make a person's cancer go away would be nice; or chant some words and cure drought and famine in a poor region of the world, that'd would be pretty great.

Oh, no doubt that magic could be used to save lives, but I just think that cost of lives lost in wars would be far greater than any that would be saved. Sorta like giving everyone a nuclear reactor for free and renewable energy. You're going to have too many stupid people blowing themselves up and too many evil people blowing each other up.

No, us human would easily become extinct. Imagine someone cast Meteor, Holy, Ultima or Tornado?

Magic would make the world so much more interesting though it's a certainty that people would abuse it to no end.

Yes, because I would become a rockstar.

The things we can do now are like magic in comparison to the past. The things in the future will be like magic in comparison to now.

I think if magic was always around the world would be a much different place to begin with.

I think if magic were something that appeared tomorrow it would cause some very complicated new issues to emerge.

There's also a lot of questions that come up, then, about how it works. Does it use some sort of magic energy, or consumable runes to harness? Does everyone have access to it, or only certain people, or maybe some are more potent with magic use than others? Maybe everyone gains access to different kinds of spells, depending on numerous factors?

Imagine everyone and their neighbours, every wacko ideologue, every religious fundamentalist and conspiracy theorist potentially having nuclear weapons in the palm of their hands. Yeah, not pretty.

When given the power or freedom to do anything, humans will always inevitably eventually use it to do stupid shit. It's just base human nature.

Nah. It wouldn’t be beneficial at all for the most part. I think the majority of people would become even more selfish and do a lot more bad deeds.

It would probably be much worse.

Well, this obviously depends on what type of magic we're talking about, and if it's distributed fairly evenly rather than just being something that a tiny percentage of people just have. (Someone addressed this above).

But in terms of magic, I like to compare it to, say, Magneto having the power to kill pretty much everyone. Sure, NOT MAGIC, but the point still stands. For all practical purposes, it's still magic. We have regulations on owning simple guns. The problem becomes a lot more dangerous when that "gun" turns into "abilities that can curse or kill everyone in your city". Furthermore, a gun is an object that can be confiscated. By contrast, if magic were to exist, can we just confiscate the magic from someone who is using their magic irresponsibly?

I'm not necessarily saying that the world would be worse if magic existed. But depending on the nature of the magic that we're talking about, things could get a LOT freaking darker really quick. As in, in many countries today a shooting will get you prison time but you'll hopefully eventually get released if you serve your time without committing any additional crimes. By contrast, in a world with magic, I could see the magical equivalent of a shooting getting you a swift death sentence. Because if your magic is innate and not something that can be taken away, and if your magic is far more deadly than an assault rifle, no one could afford to let you account for your minor crimes. Not worth the risk. You f*** up, you get taken out. Imagine if you get caught using your teleporting magic to rob someone's home. Well, there's no arrest, that's a death sentence right there. How would a simple arrest and imprisonment work if you can just teleport out of prison and you've already demonstrated that you're willing to use your magical abilities to commit crimes against other people?

Magic allow you to go back to yesterday.

Magic is just science that can't be explained. If we can explain it, then it ceases to be magic, but just becomes science. Much of the science and tech we have today would've been considered magic in the past.

Yes. If I had the magic to teleport, I would save a lot of gas money and save the environment.

If magic became a reality, it would cease to be magic, wouldn't it?

I know this is a really late reply, but I've read at least a couple of fantasy series where there are spells and rituals to remove magic from a magic user, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is one of them. So in all fairness, if magic really did exist in the real world, it would be quite possible to contain someone else's magic using magic of your own.

No, because I'm dirty-minded, vengeful, and just a plain a**hole at times. Think of all the mayhem I can cause if I had access to magic.

would this include the existence of magical entities?

Sorry for the late reply's, just been busy with everything lol.

Point taken.

Something like from what we seen in Harry Potter stuff?

Oh, I never thought of our technology today would be consider magic in a way. But I do agree that our advanced tech is like magic to us and if this is as close as to making magic a reality, I'm cool with that.

If I have magic powers I probably be like voldemort or at least poor mans version of him and probably will try to nuclear the world.

"If I have magic powers I probably be like voldemort"

Think about how Orochimaru is with ninjitsu from Naruto.

I'd probably be like that!

What makes you think it doesn't? Moohoohahahaha!

I think it would make life harder on everyone

Depends on the magic. If we're talking about the kind that includes blood rituals and sacrifices similar to Dragon Age or Elder Scrolls series, no. Honestly, I can't think of any type of magic that won't, at some point, get abused or corrupted by people who just wants to see the world burn or who are just greedy.

So, in an overall picture, no magic won't make the world a better. It will will simply provide us with better tools to kill each other with...