magic

A technological book I really like, starts it's explanations with the 'perpetuum mobile', the machine that's impossible for physical reasons. It represents a ideal goal. Just the same, "magic" usually refers to the act of getting things done by easy, impossible, unexplained and unexplainable, not "natural" means.

inverse definitions

By combining this definition and the previous one about technology, we can clearly divide "what we can do" into two sets: the explained, explainable and reproducable being "technology", and every other action that does not have these qualities as "magic".

why is this important?

"Magic" is bad.

"Magic" that works without your understanding, can result in behavior and outcomes that you can't predict or fix or revert.

There are also a lot of political reasons. It being unexplained usually means someone else hasn't explained the object to you. They are withholding information. If it's not explainable, messing with it is risky. That risk may becoime your risk and your problem. If it's not reproducable, the explanation that was given was wrong and the previous two problems exist.

consequence

In a world filled with "unexplained technology"/"magic", we are facing a lot of... events? that are bad for the above reasons. It is in our interest, to:

• understand them, to predict them and avoid bad outcomes, which can be "science"
• ensure that, even if we don't understand them, someone else, someone benevolent does and that someone should advise us how to deal with the thing or method at hand.

How we get others to explain or handle the unexplained is a political problem.