He had to depend on what was available, since magic couldn't produce any
needed device and since the people here had depended on magic too long
to develop the other necessary skills. When only the broadest powers of
magic remained, they were hopeless. Names were still potent, resonance
worked within its limits, and the general principles of similarity still
applied; but those were not enough for them. They depended too heavily
on the second great principle of contagion, and that seemed to be
wrapped up with some kind of association through the signs and houses
and the courses of the planets.
He found himself thinking in circles of worry and pulled himself back to
his problem. Normally, a computer was designed for flexibility and to
handle varying conditions. This one could be designed to handle only one
set of factors. It had to duplicate the courses of the objects in their
sky and simulate the general behavior of the dome. It was not necessary
to allow for all theoretical courses, but only for the normal orbits.
And finally he realized that he was thinking of a model--the one thing
which is functionally the perfect analogue.
It brought him back to magic again. Make a doll like a man and stick
pins in it--and the man dies. Make a model of the universe within the
sky, and any changes in that should change reality. The symbol was the
thing, and a model was obviously a symbol.
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