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But it is magic. Personally, I wish we called more of our day to day lives magic. The fact that any of this works is absolutely magic. The whole point of scien

But it is magic. Personally, I wish we called more of our day to day lives magic. The fact that any of this works is absolutely magic. The whole point of science is separating the magic that works from the hocus pocus that doesn’t. Just because you understand it, just because we have equations, algorithms, and stories that explain the relationships between things, that doesn’t mean it’s not magic. It just means the magic is REAL. It’s impossible for me to look at a computer, a server rack, a car, or a roomba and not see the magic. Just because I understand the principles behind them doesn’t rob me of the wonder of the universe. The analogy I like to use is Hogwarts. Just because they study spells in that fictional world, just because they have schools and universities doesn’t mean the spells aren’t magic. They’re studying the magic available to them in that universe.

imiric 5y ago
I understand the sentiment that technology _feels_ magical. It certainly does so for someone unfamiliar with the field. But for us working in it, who can see the layers upon layers of abstractions, it feels less magical and more like a miracle that any of this works at all. Many of the devices you mention are programmed at such high levels that the programmers themselves rarely understand exactly what's going on beneath the surface. The hardest part of getting the thing to work at all is managing the complex web of dependencies underneath, not programming the actual functionality. Systems that appear magical are mostly running on a house of cards and person-years worth of frustration.
a4isms 5y ago
I own a slab of glass I can talk to, it talks to me, and it can recognize my face. This is absolutely magic in a figurative sense. And never mind that, I'm typing this message on a device that is thinner, lighter, and does so much more than the typewriter I wrote my high school essays upon... And I use it to exchange messages in real time with people around the world! Thank you for reminding us of the everyday magic surrounding us.
- giraffe_lady 5y ago
  I can't remember where I heard this anymore but "a computer is a rock we tricked into thinking"
  - a4isms 5y ago
    I've heard similar things, but with "sand" instead of a rock. Presumably a nod towards silicon.
  - detaro 5y ago
    When Spectre was in the news there was a comment along the lines of "we now forced rocks to think so hard they're getting stress disorders"
  - majewsky 5y ago
    The first time I saw it was here: https://nitter.net/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456 https://nitter.net/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456 > If you ever code something that “feels like a hack but it works,” just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking. Not to oversimplify: First you have to flatten the rock and put lightning inside it.
ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
I think you might like Alejandro Jodorowsk's "Psychomagic", or The Midnight Gospel on Netflix. Neither of those are super closely linked to your comment. I just think you might get a kick out of them.
- r3trohack3r 5y ago
  Midnight Gospel is one of my favorite TV shows. I've never heard of Psychomagic, but I'll check it out. Thank you for the recommendations!
OJFord 5y ago
I remember graduating with the feeling that I understood all this stuff which is essentially (from a certain, perhaps EE-biased, perspective anyway) built on top of radio, and yet the simplest, oldest forms of wireless communication are baffling. I 'understand' (more so then) them of course, the theory, the practice, but what magic that any of this works?! Maybe it's just because we can't see it, and it oughtn't be any weirder than anything else, but I still find it nuts and have to try not to think about it too much. Nevermind the crazy bandwidth & latency & distances we've come to expect with the internet.
- r3trohack3r 5y ago
  To take it one step further, I recently read From Atomos to Atom and From Alchemy to Chemistry. Those books are a fascinating read that made me appreciate both how much we've figured out and how far we are from nature's truths. The idea of an atom, or a quark, is a construct that approximates reality. Nature doesn't care about our constructs. Just because we've kinda "figured it out" doesn't mean we've robbed nature of it's magic. We are only discovering the magic that was always there. And, IMH(umble)O, the magic we discovered since the Renaissance is far cooler - far more magical - than anything the Alchemists could come up with in their wildest dreams.
switchbak 5y ago
I know some people that also view much of the technology around us as "magic", but for them, that's less a statement of appreciation and wonder, and more of a statement of opaque complexity and a complete unknowability. I can appreciate how Lightroom works, or an electric car, or the electrical grid, etc. I don't have to know every last detail, but I should have some awareness of the fundamental principles on which these things are built. Deferring this to "magic" in the sense that I say "I don't know how that works, no one can know, it's MAGIC" can be a lazy way to think. I think it's a slippery slope that gets us closer to psuedoscience, new-age gimmicks, and other forms of poor thinking and manipulation. We should all seek to understand how things really work (even at a coarse level) in this Demon Haunted World of ours. (Even if this isn't how you interpret this word, I'm suggesting there is a risk that others do).

imiric 5y ago

I understand the sentiment that technology _feels_ magical. It certainly does so for someone unfamiliar with the field. But for us working in it, who can see the layers upon layers of abstractions, it feels less magical and more like a miracle that any of this works at all. Many of the devices you mention are programmed at such high levels that the programmers themselves rarely understand exactly what's going on beneath the surface. The hardest part of getting the thing to work at all is managing the complex web of dependencies underneath, not programming the actual functionality. Systems that appear magical are mostly running on a house of cards and person-years worth of frustration.

a4isms 5y ago

I own a slab of glass I can talk to, it talks to me, and it can recognize my face. This is absolutely magic in a figurative sense. And never mind that, I'm typing this message on a device that is thinner, lighter, and does so much more than the typewriter I wrote my high school essays upon... And I use it to exchange messages in real time with people around the world! Thank you for reminding us of the everyday magic surrounding us.

giraffe_lady 5y ago
I can't remember where I heard this anymore but "a computer is a rock we tricked into thinking"
- a4isms 5y ago
  I've heard similar things, but with "sand" instead of a rock. Presumably a nod towards silicon.
- detaro 5y ago
  When Spectre was in the news there was a comment along the lines of "we now forced rocks to think so hard they're getting stress disorders"
- majewsky 5y ago
  The first time I saw it was here: https://nitter.net/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456 https://nitter.net/daisyowl/status/841802094361235456 > If you ever code something that “feels like a hack but it works,” just remember that a CPU is literally a rock that we tricked into thinking. Not to oversimplify: First you have to flatten the rock and put lightning inside it.

ghostbrainalpha 5y ago

I think you might like Alejandro Jodorowsk's "Psychomagic", or The Midnight Gospel on Netflix. Neither of those are super closely linked to your comment. I just think you might get a kick out of them.

r3trohack3r 5y ago
Midnight Gospel is one of my favorite TV shows. I've never heard of Psychomagic, but I'll check it out. Thank you for the recommendations!

OJFord 5y ago

I remember graduating with the feeling that I understood all this stuff which is essentially (from a certain, perhaps EE-biased, perspective anyway) built on top of radio, and yet the simplest, oldest forms of wireless communication are baffling. I 'understand' (more so then) them of course, the theory, the practice, but what magic that any of this works?! Maybe it's just because we can't see it, and it oughtn't be any weirder than anything else, but I still find it nuts and have to try not to think about it too much. Nevermind the crazy bandwidth & latency & distances we've come to expect with the internet.

r3trohack3r 5y ago
To take it one step further, I recently read From Atomos to Atom and From Alchemy to Chemistry. Those books are a fascinating read that made me appreciate both how much we've figured out and how far we are from nature's truths. The idea of an atom, or a quark, is a construct that approximates reality. Nature doesn't care about our constructs. Just because we've kinda "figured it out" doesn't mean we've robbed nature of it's magic. We are only discovering the magic that was always there. And, IMH(umble)O, the magic we discovered since the Renaissance is far cooler - far more magical - than anything the Alchemists could come up with in their wildest dreams.

switchbak 5y ago

I know some people that also view much of the technology around us as "magic", but for them, that's less a statement of appreciation and wonder, and more of a statement of opaque complexity and a complete unknowability. I can appreciate how Lightroom works, or an electric car, or the electrical grid, etc. I don't have to know every last detail, but I should have some awareness of the fundamental principles on which these things are built. Deferring this to "magic" in the sense that I say "I don't know how that works, no one can know, it's MAGIC" can be a lazy way to think. I think it's a slippery slope that gets us closer to psuedoscience, new-age gimmicks, and other forms of poor thinking and manipulation. We should all seek to understand how things really work (even at a coarse level) in this Demon Haunted World of ours. (Even if this isn't how you interpret this word, I'm suggesting there is a risk that others do).