Electricity vs Magic?

[Bob Schroeck]

One of the omake side stories for Taylor Varga (The Long Slow Lizarding of Hermione Granger) makes it out to be a technology suppression spell, examples of which tend to have dangerous long-term side effects:

She shrugged. "I've seen it before. Lack of common sense, a sort of unpleasant conformity to authority… Of course, some of the more disreputable rulers have tried using them for exactly those reasons. They make the population very suggestible. But it also tends to reduce birthrate a lot. Eventually there's a population crash and..." She waved a hand dismissively. "The problem solves itself in the long run, but not in a good way."