system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Marvel/Thor] Asgard is described as a realm where science advanced so much it became indistinguishable from magic. Why then did they revert to swords and shields?
gpt
Think about e-readers.

For years, people refused to convert over to things like kindles, preferring to stick to paper books-- while the internet existed for years, which should make them used to looking at screens all day.

As the technology advanced, designers learned that making an appealing e-reader requires elements which make it mimic a book-- the pages should look like pages, and *they should turn as if it were a book.* Why on earth, realistically, do people need to swipe their pages like a book? Why not shake it? Have a verbal command? Stick with buttons, maybe put them on the sides to swipe down like a scroller?

Because it's a cultural artifact. Even as we advance technologies, we will, inevitable, keep design elements which have no logical reason for being there-- they were just culturally comforting.

Here you have the Asgardians, an ancient and powerful culture for which their technology becomes so common place that when they discuss it, they use phrases which make no sense to us and sound like magic-- but Jane Foster was able to translate, and confirm, as quantum physics. Do you know how much your average medical technician knows about radiative decay? They don't have to worry about that, they don't design the machines they just use them.

Why swords and shields? It's just a design element. Those simple shields have more tech in them than the nation of Wakanda. What will you use against such tech? Ballistic weaponry? Probably not, as Asgardians are strong enough that *their own arm-swing velocity* is ballistic level. So no-- they have ancient looking weapons, reinforced and teched up, used with super strength against other shields which are also reinforced and techned up and, on occasion, lasers, because what the hell else could kill them? And they all look like sword-and-sorcery because that is what the culture of Asgard is comfortable with.

I imagine if the US created a weapon like Mjolnir, it would look like an oversized silver Colt 6 shooter that wouldn't shoot bullets.