It’s amazing how often modern people talk about magic.
To be modern, almost by definition, is to live without putting much stock in a supernatural “beyond” to the world. And yet, nearly every time a new technology is introduced, its promoters reach back to the ancient idea of magic to capture its significance.
It was true of Steve Jobs at the dawn of the smartphone—Apple’s advertising for many years was saturated with promises of a “magical” experience. And now it is true of the next wave of tech. Sam Altmann of OpenAI opens a recent essay: “In the next couple of decades, we will be able to do things that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents.” Once you start looking for the technology-magic connection, you’ll find it nearly everywhere—especially in the promotion phase, before the technology actually arrives.
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