I'm not certain if my ethers not working is because this reality doesn't support the way they function or just because the nanomachines broke down like the rest of my technology. But I digress, the point is that it's possible that while direct matter and data interaction is an absurd idea in our worlds, it might be completely possible here.

After all, alchemy is an ancient notion that's been long since proven nothing more than superstitious nonsense where I come from.