[Dragaera] _Iorich_ random brief comments (spoilers!)

[Alexx Kay]

> On Tue, 26 Jan 2010, Alexx Kay wrote:
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>>> If in fact the calculation works out cheaper for the
>>> crew/longshoremen/etc
>>> salaries/etc., then that means there is an incredible gulf between the
>>> value of manual labor and simple magical labor.  I don't know how that
>>> would be supportable economically or societally.
>>
>> Why not?  In our world, computer programmers (who I think are a decent
>> equivalent to 'sorcerers') make a *lot* more money than manual laborers.
>> And our society at least pays lip service to egalitarianism, whereas the
>> Empire make no bones about oppressing peasants as much as possible.
>
> A good programmer trains for years and years of a human life to earn,
> what, $100/hr, or x10 what a bargeman makes, or x1 what a longshoreman
> makes?

In a feudal society, income disparities can be a lot higher than that.

>Vlad and Cawti picked up teleporting on the side I think -

Vlad studies sorcery for years, at significant expense to his father, as a
youth.  IIRC (and I may not), he doesn't actually learn to teleport on his
own until sometime after _Dragon_.

I forget whether or not Cawti knows how to teleport.  Even if she does,
she's another person with plenty of Unusual Background.

I maintain that teleportation among Dragaerans is like programming skill
among us.  If you travel in certain circles (such as SF fandom), it may
seem like something that practically everyone can do, at least at a
hobbyist level.  But measured against the population as a whole, it's an
uncommon skill, and commands high prices.

> Morrolan learned it in a few days starting from functional illiteracy
> iirc.

M, at least as portrayed by Paarfi, is a savant (possibly an idiot savant
:-)  Outside Paarfi's portrayal, he's good enough to become Imperial
Wizard, which marks him as a pretty significant outlier.

>And programming is an evolving and challenging job -

So's post-Interregnum Sorcery.

>I'm talking
> about replacing maybe 30*5*10 Dragaeran hours of labor with << 1 hr of
> trivial work for anyone able to do it.

I dispute your claim that it is trivial.  I can carry a five-pound bag of
flour from the car to the kitchen 'trivially'; it does not follow that I
can move five tons of flour any distance at all.  Granted, the Orb
provides effectively infinite energy.  But being able to manipulate large
quantities of that energy at once has been established to require
highly-skilled sorcerers.

How many people are both able to develop their skill to such a degree --
and simultaneously willing to exercise that skill on shipping staple
goods?

> Maybe this is standard industrial or computer revolution stuff,
> maybe we already know this and I'm just catching up, anyway it's
> important for the society.

Not sure what you're getting at here...

Alexx

"Bagels can be an enormous force for good or for evil. It is up to us
 to decide how we will use them."    -- Daniel M. Pinkwater