The downside of Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.") is that to a layperson, a lot of skilled tasks are "sufficiently advanced technology". Many people treat skilled work like it's waving a wand and casting a spell instead of, you know, work, and so they value the time and skill involved less.
@001zlnv @noelle that can be a block from learning, but I've spent enough time in customer service to 'believe' in "customer service magic", where things will start working just as soon as you want to show somebody
(By believe, I mean accept that some things are transitory impediments that don't offer any ROI for chasing down the actual root cause-which might be wholly out of your control anyway-, so it might as well be magic)
@noelle I've heard a better way to put it: Any sufficiently advance tech is indistinguishable from *nature* http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/alientech.php#indistnature
@shiburizu That's not really a better way to put it so much as an extension of the idea. "A sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from nature" is the next step up from "...from magic", not a replacement.
@noelle yes, "better" is subjective, but if you want to avoid the "its only magic because of ignorance" take then that is a very interesting angle. But you're right!
@noelle the downside of Clarke's Law was that Clarke had a very limited sort of imagination
@noelle It's actually a term that's used in literature to describe that a work where there's a highly advanced techonological progress that the things the tech can do is about the same as the things you can do with magic in more fantasy-oriented settings.
I feel like it's more that mundanes want to treat the magic as work.
"Perhaps it is magic. The magic of the human heart. Focused and made manifest by technology. Every day, you here create greater miracles than the burning bush."
It mostly works with nerds, works a bit less with non-nerds but they often understand the point.
@noelle that is why I attempt to adopt the affect, appearance and persona of a wizard. That way when I perform a simple technical task, I can act like it is a profound and taxing miracle and demand a suitable price (like shoulder rubs or M&Ms)
@noelle I’ve noticed this especially in anything involving programming, system/network administration, and anything else along those lines involving computers. If you have no understanding of how that task works than it might as well be magic to you.
@noelle
and then there's the issue where they mistake the person for the action. "it works because you're here", as opposed to watching what was done to make it work