Persistable first level arcane spells

[Nifft]

By RAW, no, this is not the case.

Darkvision has a target ("Creature touched") and a range ("Touch").

Ah, that's my mistake. Thanks for catching it.

The analogy I should have used is a spell like Tremorsense, not Darkvision.

I get your point, and yes, you could write a version of detect magic analogous to darkvision - that's pretty much arcane sight. However, detect magic is not that spell.

You claim that detect magic does the same thing that arcane sight does, but with a weird range entry. That's not how it works. Detect magic uses a different method to obtain the same information that arcane sight gives you, as evidenced by the fact that detect magic has a different range entry, a 'Save: No' entry and an 'SR: No' entry.

Detect magic is active, arcane sight is passive, hence the different range entries.

Hmm.

I think that, since arcane sight says that it works like detect magic except faster and with more range, therefore arcane sight would inherit Saving Throw: None. and SR: No. from detect magic.

But yeah, I think they are exactly the same effect, except as noted in their descriptions.

That's why detect magic can be made Permanent on yourself -- not on a bunch of objects which you are currently looking at, but rather on you -- it's because detect magic targets you, exactly the same way arcane sight targets you.

Your interpretation would mean that a Permanent detect magic would not have any sensible utility.