Monday, December 29, 2025

Science and Magic


Magic is the way humans, from the start, explained agency. It was there eons before Science came along, the go-to explanation for events much longer than Science. 

Hardly surprising, then, that magic beats Science in the explanatory stakes still. What are quantum mechanics but the contemporary form of magic - there, but inexplicable? Invisible particles passing through walls. Effects without causes. Wonders ...

So magic has another advantage it will never lose as long as we are what we are.

It's all of a piece with the human capacity to imagine, to marvel, and in that respect, is useful and beautiful. It takes imagination to see humanity as moving out into the infinite Universe. It takes a sense of Magic that leaves Science limping dully behind.