magic is science and science is magic, once a civilization gets high enough then their scientific level would be equivalent to that of magic. we have nukes that can easily destroy cities and even small countries, which for the medieval ages would be impossible even with hundreds of war machines back then. If we were to contact a tier-three civilization that can create warships that spans planets going through space faster than anything we can produce, create various things that we can't even imagine, and can recreate anything on command. even for us who knows this is science would think that it seems to be like magic.

think about it, as long as we have the materials needed, and the knowledge needed we can technically manipulate anything. As long as we understand how to control the atom to how we want using nanotechnology or something similar we can recreate fireballs, earth walls, water canons, air canons or whatever. of course there is a limit as it would generate a large amount of heat which would need to have some counter to which will be hard, but if we can solve all the problems we can make someone into stone. blast through anything, melt steel, and levitate objects. Of course for things such as teleporation you would need to somehow create a nanomachine that can somehow manipulate quantum physics which i don't even know if that is possible

There is certainly a possibility that we could do all that, but why would we do it in the most asinine inefficient way possible? Magic as described in this book and most other literature is inherently a huge waste of energy. Take shooting a fireball for example. A lot of energy is wasted on heat, light and keeping to an ineffective structure. A bullet has better penetration, a bomb more concussive force and high energy rays produce more heat. If magic was grounded in science, as we as humans understand it today, it would start at a completely different angle. Beginner Magic would probably look like the force in StarWars, entirely unnoticeable until it comes in contact with another medium and no energy wasted. Except Force Lightning, pretend that travesty never existed. Fantasy Magic is grounded in the unexplainable, forces from different dimensions and the classical elements. Magic based around the periodic table would be totally different. Creating Gold from Lead would be less energy intensive than a firebolt. Magic combat would also be a lot different. To instantly kill someone you need less energy than it takes to breath once, you only need to apply that energy at one of thousands of places inside the body. The human body is a complicated machine and destruction is always easier than creation. To protect a living being from such forces you would need to spend not 1000 times more energy, but hundreds of thousands or even millions of times more energy. Magic is not based in science because science based magic would be very boring to write and simply a numbers game. 10 idiots with guns beat a grandmaster in martial art who has spent his entire life training. 10000 idiots without arms will kill a swat team. Imagine the kinf of protection you would need to protect a single human from bullets at any angle, now do the same with needles shot at supersonic speed, then light rays, then single electrons. Science does not lend itself to character focused stories because anyone can use it and the only resource needed to propagate it is time. Why would you need a hero to train 10 years to kill a dragon if 1000 villagers using the equivalent energy of throwing on stone each could do the job. For magic to be worth spending time on you need some kind of usage restriction and exponential power growth of the individual. For Magic to be worthwhile in a science based environment you would need to turn one plus one into more than two, because otherwise 2 people would do the job better and there would be no time and energy wasted on the transformation. To return to my earlier analogy, a bomb can wipe out a village. Someone who can build a bomb himself could rule a village, but only until the villagers create their own. If magic is like science based around the principles that it is an universal rule, than can be observed and recreated, then it is only a Mather of time until the villagers have their own bomb and an arms race starts. And this is where it becomes a numbers game again.

Magic is only called science when people don't understand it or are not able to. The ones who do call it science.

what, the wording is a bit off and i cant get what your trying to say, are you saying that people who don't understand science would call it magic, while when you do understand it, you will call it science?

your original argument was that it didn't make sense for science to explain magic, but I provided you a possible way for science to explain magic, and then you go on to say that it will take millions of times the energy to create a fireball then a gun and also the logistical problems with this thing? sorry, I was just trying to prove that science can indeed create "magic" and can indeed do what he is doing, of course minus the spatial and soul stuff, you can do it. Not only that even if people all know how to use magic, but it is also still how you create that magic and use that magic. Let's say I create a fireball with nanotechnology, instead of shooting that fireball to the opponent I can use some wood magic to instead boost that fireball, or instead rotate it at a speed that will tear through someone, or instead use it to completely burn them instead of exploding, As for your argument of saying that it will take hundreds of thousands to millions of times of energy is just ridiculous, nanotechnology in the first place is made to manipulate something in the nanoscale and would have a way easier time manipulating something on that scale, not only that they aren't creating matter, but manipulating matter, and not only that, with this "magic" that you call inferior to a bullet or bomb, think about the implications of magic in the first place, magic has no cooldown, infinite ammo, ability to shoot a thousand times at the same time, big and I mean big AoE attacks, creation of instant shelters, bases, and defenses, replacements for limbs, and disabling and interrupting anything they have

I can't understand you're trying to state either. Too many commas in your statements is a bit confusing.