You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

RichardKennaway comments on The "supernatural" category - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: rstarkov 24 March 2011 08:52PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Article Navigation

Comments (29)
Tags: supernatural

Comments (29)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 24 March 2011 11:43:36PM *  5 points [-]

"Magic is just a way of saying 'I don't know.'"

Terry Pratchett, "Nation"

The essence of magic is to do away with underlying mechanisms. ... What makes the elephant disappear is the movement of the wand and the intent of the magician, directly. If there were any intervening processes, it would not be magic but just engineering. As soon as you know how the magician made the elephant disappear, the magic disappears and -- if you started by believing in magic -- the disappointmnent sets in.

William T. Powers (CSGNET mailing list, April 2005)

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit