#055: Technology as Magic
You might have heard of Clarke’s third law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s easy to imagine that, if you could travel back in time even just 50 years, a smartphone would appear to be nothing but a magical slab of glass, impossible to recreate using technology of that day.
It’s easy to see why this might happen. Consider: There’s a small area inside the device you’re reading this on made of the same stuff as sand on a beach, with electric pathways etched on it so fine you couldn’t even see them on a microscope. Yet all that thing does is perform arithmetic on ones and zeros, nothing else. Still, this allows it to paint you a picture of this email using liquid crystals, not just once, but 30 to 60 times every second. Oh, and you can get that whole package small enough to put it in a pocket and bring it with you.
Even today, there’s a class of people who can perform magical things. They can create magical brooms to clean their lairs, or teach a car to drive itself. They can damage devices around the world using nothing but a few lines of incantation. They created magic mirrors that allow you to talk to anyone around the world, and have the entire knowledge of humanity at your fingertips. They use dark magic to trick you into doing things you didn’t want to do. They can create whole universes out of nothing all on their own.
Such magic can gain you great power and riches, but it also risks you getting burnt at the (proverbial) stake. Somewhat ironically, it’s only since such magic has become widespread enough that a practitioner of it has to take care of his use of it. When it was hard to do, and (literally) only old men with beards would practice it, nobody cared about it. Only today, when such great power is in the hands of a relative few, and can influence everyone around the world, people start to care.
It’s not very likely that mobs with torches and pitchforks will come after programmers. Still, while there are millions of people who have a fairly good understanding of how a computer works and how to manipulate one, there are many more who don’t. And while they might benefit from the work of those who know, they also know they can easily be tricked. It would behoove those in the know to keep this in mind, and to not rely on their powers alone.
Other interesting links from around the web:
- The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized — In other words, all the talent in the world won’t help you succeed if the circumstances aren’t in your favor.
- Your horoscope app just needs your email, birthdate, location, and… wait a minute
- Don’t Buy Into Toxic ‘Toxin-Free’ Marketing
- A comparison of the sizes of various microorganisms, cells, and viruses
- Welcome to Newscycle: The World’s Most Exhausting Cycling Workout
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