“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– Arthur C. Clarke
A stage magician is good if they can perform feats we cannot decode. We are left scratching our heads as they appear to levitate right in front of our eyes.
In the same vein, I couldn’t tell you how the Large Hadron Collider works. Nor can I explain the intricacies of how Uber gets a car to my exact location.
But in all these cases, I know that someone, or at least a collection of people, can explain it. And that just because I don’t understand something, doesn’t mean it’s out of the purview of human thought and ability. It’s stage magic.
But we are coming into the age of machines building machines, algorithms teaching algorithms.
If no human has had a hand in the creation of something. If that something is so complex, and evolves so quickly, that no person or group can unpack the ‘how’ that ‘what’ and the ‘why’, will that thing be distinguishable from actual magic?