shminux comments on Excluding the Supernatural - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 12 September 2008 12:12AM

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Comment author: dlthomas 19 December 2011 05:55:00PM 2 points [-]

I think my first encounter with this was James Randi, which makes a lot of sense. I don't know if it was originally his, either, though.

Comment author: buybuydandavis 25 August 2012 10:39:50PM 5 points [-]

Found the quote the other day. Makes sense that Randi knew it too. Apparently Siegel was a magician and professor too, who wrote a book on Indian magic.

youtube, Free Will as Moral Competence, Daniel Dennett at the University of Melbourne, Australia, 15:21 Dennett quotes from "Net of Magic", by Lee Siegel

Quote from book: "I'm writing a book on magic, " I explain, and I'm asked, "Real magic?" By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. "No, " I answer: "Conjuring tricks, not real magic."

Dennett: Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.

Comment author: shminux 26 August 2012 11:11:16PM *  -1 points [-]

Surely real magic is done through yet-unknown means. It might stop being magical some day, once explained (reduced), in compliance with Clarke's 3rd law.