{"id":172,"date":"2026-02-15T19:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/?p=172"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:55:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:55:41","slug":"dual-use-of-mathematics-and-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/2026\/02\/15\/dual-use-of-mathematics-and-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual use of mathematics and magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am reading the fascinating book <em>Secrets of the First School<\/em> by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tendai_Huchu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tendai Huchu<\/a> (available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Secrets-First-School-Magicians-Edinburgh-ebook\/dp\/B0DTJY5XDW\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amazon<\/a>),\u00a0and have found remarkable words\u00a0 on p. 161:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;What separates dark magic from normal magic is the practitioner&#8217;s intent. A Promethean fire spell can be used to warm the home on a cold night, or it can be used for arson. It&#8217;s the same magic, but with a different use.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mathematics is a kind of magic. Their difference is in the scale. Promethean fire spells of mathematics\u00a0 can\u00a0 be highly beneficial to the entire humankind, but also can destroy human civilisation as we know it. Practitioners of mathematics are sometimes facing serious moral choices\u00a0 &#8211; this is discussed in\u00a0 my paper\u00a0 <em>The Tool\/Weapon Duality of Mathematics<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 that just appeared online at https:\/\/scholarship.claremont.edu\/jhm\/vol16\/iss1\/24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am reading the fascinating book Secrets of the First School by Tendai Huchu (available on Amazon),\u00a0and have found remarkable words\u00a0 on p. 161: &#8220;What separates dark magic from normal magic is the practitioner&#8217;s intent. A Promethean fire spell can be used to warm the home on a cold night, or it can be used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/borovik.net\/selecta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}