No More Magic?

Farewell to magical thinking.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• magic
• religion
• philosophy
• christianity
• buddhism
• islam

[saltheadd]

magic is the lack of understanding.

[daleshankins]

@reallybigname I have no desire to make you quit using the term magic. But all I can safely say about it is that I DO NOT KNOW what you mean by the term. Until you define magic and prove that it exists I won't know how to use it. Feel free to use the term magic, but until you explain and demonstrate what you mean, I'm afraid that I must continue to use my more mundane phrase - "I don't know" when I encounter something I do not understand. Thank you for your patience with my ignorance.

[reallybigname]

@daleshankins When you can scientifically prove to me that there is no such thing as magic, then I will quit using the term magic.  The fact is, you are scared to use the term "magic" for something you don't understand, because you think it denotes some belief in unicorns or fairies. It doesn't.

[daleshankins]

@reallybigname I agree it is impossible to disprove anything completely. However, we know that the probability of there being a magic dragon in my computer is much lower than the probability that there are printed electronic circuits on silicon wafers. I am content to say I don't know something. You seem determined to use the term magic for what you do not know. So be it. There is no resolution to your persistence in wanting to use the term magic for what you do not know.

[reallybigname]

@daleshankins Until you explain the nature of consciousness, it might as well be magic. You could say its just something you don't understand that you're able to use anyway. Or, you can attribute it to magic or religion or supernatural, or whatever you want. But, you can't prove its not magic. You can't disprove anything you don't understand.

[daleshankins]

@reallybigname Please read A Brief Tour Of Human Consciousness by V. S. Ramachandran or Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio. Comparing the brain to a computer is similar to comparing the sun to a basketball. Very inaccurate. Saying something "might as well be magic" is not the same thing as saying it IS magic. Why do you resist the simple statement that there is a lot that we do not know? Why do you insist on calling a lack of knowledge magic? What about the word magic is so "magical" for you?



[reallybigname]

@daleshankins Your brain is a computer, yet we cannot explain how to reproduce consciousness in a computer... It might as well be magic. Yet, you are using your consciousness magic right now. Agreed, magic is something you don't understand. But, that does not mean its not useful or powerful.

[daleshankins]

@daleshankins PART 2 The fact that someone may not know the laws of physics does not make a computer "magic", or perhaps, by your definition it does. To me lack of knowledge is simply that, a lack of knowledge. Nothing more needs to be said. Applying a confusing term like "magic" to my lack of knowledge is not helpful, at least from my point of view. Why would I want to use the term "magic" when the simpler phrase, "I don't know" is simpler implies nothing other than a lack of knowledge?

[daleshankins]

@reallybigname I agree that "magic" and "supernatural" are simply words. I prefer the simpler less confusing words, "I don't know" when I encounter something that I do not understand. Lack of knowledge however, does not mean that something operates outside the laws of physics or nature. Everything in a computer can be explained using physics. CONTINUED...

[reallybigname]

@daleshankins One minute you're disavowing magical thinking, and the next minute you're ready to define if something is "supernatural" or not. It doesn't make sense. If anything exists at all, it is part of nature. Again, "magic" or "supernatural" are just words to describe something that you don't understand. Many functions in a computer, from people's perspectives, are like magic. Magic doesn't automatically mean something that you can't use or repeat or any of that. Magic is relative.