i think it was asimov (or was it clarke?) who noted that there is no difference between miracles and sufficiently advanced technology.
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It was Clarke.
The original quotation:
**Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.**
found at 'Science Fiction Citations' --
<http://www.jessesword.com/sf/list/?page=6&order=lastmod >
This is known as 'Clarke's Third Law'. I'm not sure if Clarke himself so dubbed it or if it was given this lofty title by admirers.
The other two 'laws' read as follows:
1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
More 'law' goodness at --
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke's_three_laws >
.d.