A magic riddle: what flies, breathes fire, and strikes fear into its enemy? A dragon… yes, but also an F-16 fighter jet – and what allows you to hear the voices of lost loved ones again? Communing with the spirits? Maybe in some universes, but in this one, any smartphone.
The tech-magic resemblance
Arthur C. Clarke, the late scientist, author, and inventor first articulated this comparison, when he argued in Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
So why do we not recognize this clear usurping of magic’s powers? Why are we not wowed, every day, that we can speak to those thousands of miles away, send humans to space, or effectively access all recorded information from a device the size of your palm, which weighs little more than a banana?
I would argue that the creep of technology, the initial deployment of weaker imitations, and eventual ubiquity often make technological advancement seem inevitable to many. Before ChatGPT we had customer service chatbots, before the iPhone we had Blackberry, and before that, the Nokia 8110.
With the overwhelming quantity of information we are flooded with, discerning the truly magical becomes a struggle and the insane can become quickly mundane.
Magicians and muggles
However, it is not just the technologies that are mystified, but also their creators. Which average individual could possibly grasp the engineering of an iPhone, rocket, or even the humble disposable battery? Precious few.
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By GlobalDataWhile techies are not universally deified, they are at least perceived as visionary and at most, as modern alchemists, crafting electricity and metal into diverse forms of meta-modern gold.
In 2022, 4.83 million US workers were engineering graduates, accounting for approximately 3% of the working population, according to Data USA. In this environment of low engineering literacy, engineers can become sages and technology whisperers. Such a perspective likely contributes to why tech regulation is so often behind the innovation curve.
But connections to fantasy do not stop with specific individuals or technological understanding. Rather these connections tinge the narratives of the sector. The US-China technological arms race is often seen through the archetypal “goodie vs baddie” dichotomy, so common in fantasy novels. Even the label of tech products as “solutions”, rather than processes, suggests they have special, all-encompassing properties, not unlike a silver bullet or magic potion.
Magical innovation
But what’s next for 21st-century magic? Perhaps it will take cues for its future development from science fiction. This would be on brand considering that in almost every depiction of magic in popular culture, the heroes must delve into some ancient magic or past practice to claim victory. Think of literally any fantastical story ever. The solution is often discovered, not created.
However, with modern technology, it seems unlikely that a platform that “supercharges” employee collaboration by “leveraging” AI was discovered, rather, it was willed into existence. If tech is the magic of the 21st century, I wish I’d been told earlier. I would have changed my dream career when I was nine years old. Forget being a wizard, I want to be an engineer!
