I report and link. You decide. - J :)
Much as the giant world wide machine in E. M. Forester's "The Machine Stops" was not future technology but a symbol of the 19th century British Empire:
The magical underground culture in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series would seem to be a symbol for the marvels of technology that have appeared among us without much wide spread understanding of the underlying science or of the ways in which we are being changed.
I am not alone in this notion. A Google of "harry potter magic technology" turned up the following among the first ten hits.
From a First Things article, Harry Potter's Magic:
[...] As Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, "Any smoothly functioning technology gives the appearance of magic." [/] The fundamental moral framework of the Harry Potter books, then, is a familiar one to all of us: it is the problem of technology. (As Jacques Ellul wrote, "Magic may even be the origin of techniques.") Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is in the business of teaching people how to harness and employ certain powers - that they are powers unrecognized by science is really beside the point - but cannot insure that people will use those powers wisely, responsibly, and for the common good. It is a choice, as the thinkers of the Renaissance would have put it, between magia and goetia: "high magic" (like the wisdom possessed by the magi in Christian legend) and "dark magic."
[...] The educational quandary for Albus Dumbledore, then - though it is never described so overtly - is how to train students not just in the "technology" of magic but also in the moral discernment necessary to avoid the continual reproduction of the few great Dark Lords like Voldemort and their multitudinous followers. [/] The clarity with which Rowling sees the need to choose between good and evil is admirable, but still more admirable, to my mind, is her refusal to allow a simple division of parties into the Good and the Evil. [/] [...] "Exactly," said Dumbledore, beaming once more. "Which makes you very different from [Voldemort]. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
[...] Perhaps the most important question I could ask my Christian friends who mistrust the Harry Potter books is this: is your concern about the portrayal of this imaginary magical technology matched by a concern for the effects of the technology that in our world displaced magic? The technocrats of this world hold in their hands powers almost infinitely greater than those of Albus Dumbledore and Voldemort: how worried are we about them, and their influence over our children? Not worried enough, I would say. As Ellul suggests, the task for us is "the measuring of technique by other criteria than those of technique itself," which measuring he also calls "the search for justice before God." Joanne Rowling's books are more helpful than most in prompting such measurement. [...] [/] Alan Jacobs is Professor of English at Wheaton College.
From an Amazon.com review:
"Science in the Harry Potter books?" "Yes," Highfield, science editor of London's Daily Telegraph, emphatically answers, approaching the topic in a thoroughly playful manner. He is dead serious, however, about using the Potter corpus as the launching pad for a wonderful foray into genetics, biology, quantum theory, behaviorism, mythology, folklore, and more, bolstered by drawing on and extrapolating from the work of a great variety of scientists and scholars. Magic, like science, he states, affords many insights into the workings of the human brain, which he designates as the greatest wizard of all. Whether dealing with flying broomsticks, Quidditch, or Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Highfield demonstrates how Muggle science has a leg up on many of the phenomena in Harry's world.
From a BBC article, Potter magic charms Nokia chief:
[...] When mobile phone makers look for inspiration for future products, one would expect they look to science fiction. [/] [...] But Yrjo Neuvo, Chief Technical Officer of Nokia mobile phones, reads JK Rowling's Harry Potter to get him thinking. [/] [...] JK "is very good when it comes to predicting the future", according to Dr Neuvo, and "many of the things she is painting in her books can be implemented in phones in five to 10 years. It's really exciting," he says. [My ellipses and emphasis]
"A Girl's Guide to Gadgets" article link: Harry Potter should have swapped magic for technology - it would have been way easier
From a Use It.com article, In the Future, We'll All Be Harry Potter:
[...] The world of magic is a world where inanimate objects come alive; it's as if they had computational power, sensors, awareness, and connectivity. [/] By saying that we'll one day be like Harry Potter, I don't mean that we'll fly around on broomsticks or play three-dimensional ballgames (though virtual reality will let enthusiasts play Quidditch matches). What I do mean is that we're about to experience a world where spirit inhabits formerly inanimate objects.
Much of the Harry Potter books' charm comes from the quirky magic objects that surround Harry and his friends. Rather than being solid and static, these objects embody initiative and activity. This is precisely the shift we'll experience as computational power moves beyond the desktop into everyday objects.Next-Generation Magic [/] Here are some examples of agency in Harry Potter's objects, and how we'll achieve similar powers in the future: [[From the article link page down for half a dozen detailed examples.]]
[...] Don't Harm the Muggles [/] Harry Potter's world resembles the world of computers in another way as well: In the Harry Potter books, the population consists of two distinct groups -- a small group of wizards, and a much larger group of Muggles (standard-issue humans) who know nothing about magic or the dealings of wizards.
[...] In the Harry Potter books, the ethical wizards have agreed to leave the Muggles alone and not do magic tricks on them. It seems that computer wizards have something to learn from Harry Potter, because they often use their power in ways that are harmful to regular people. [/] [...] . Designers who inflict poor usability on the world and its Muggles are wicked wizards indeed.
