# Unexplainable phenomena are not just indistinguishable from magic, but are magic [[Clarke’s Third Law]] - *Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic* If it’s something that you personally don’t understand, but *someone* understands, it’s a sufficiently advanced technology. Is exploiting a phenomenon we don’t understand magic? Or does the mere act of exploiting it render it unmagical? A wizard can exploit magic, so clearly mere exploitability is not enough to render something unmusical. It really does have to do with explainability. As soon as a sci-fi show explains the glowing things that defy the known laws of physics as “weak force mediated quark-plasmas” it is no longer magic. If there were to be a technology that harnessed a phenomenon that *nobody* understood it would literally be magic. At the same time there have been two classes of not-understood phenomena that were *not* magic: everyday phenomena, like fire, and things like electricity before it was really understood. Perhaps magic is a phenomenon we don’t understand, and *never can understand.* The reason we have no magic anymore is because the enlightenment instilled the idea that *everything* is understandable and explainable, therefore killing magic in the processes. It would be much more fun if we reconciled the idea that everything were explainable with the idea of magic and redefined magic as anything that was *not yet explained* The unexplainability of magic puts the line between science fiction and fantasy into perspective. The less explainable the technology in science fiction given what we know today, the more it’s just fantasy with space-lasers. [[Sci-fi conceits are Kuhnsian paradigm shifts]] that haven’t happened yet. [[Technological and scientific paradigms are each based around exploiting a specific phenomenon]], so the more a conceit centers around an unobserved phenomena or an unimaginable paradigm the farther it shifts towards magic. ### Related * [[The Dark Forest]] * [[The ability to say ‘huh that’s funny’ is important for discovering new phenomena]] * [[phenomena]] * [[Technological and scientific paradigms are each based around exploiting a specific phenomenon]] <!-- #evergreen --> [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Unexplainable+phenomena+are+not+just+indistinguishable+from+magic,+but+are+magic) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Unexplainable+phenomena+are+not+just+indistinguishable+from+magic,+but+are+magic)