Ian Naxieas
The Man in the Box
Oh? Are you a writer or an artist or something?This is my main takeaway from this too. But I've based my entire life and career around imagination, so I'm biased in its favour, and I'm really adamant about letting imagination be just that, not everything has to be contextualized into the real world.
I can't disagree here at all. If we're defining magic like that, there's plenty of magic to be experienced still. Various forms of media, jaw dropping locations, impressive feats of human engineering, ancient ruins, natural wonders (Yellowstone should be on everyone's bucket list), or my favorite, impact structures. Meteor (Barringer) Crater in Arizona is a place I've visited a few times and it always fills me with a really distinct, awesome feeling....I think that it's there for everyone in its own way. I think music and art is the closest we'll ever get to a representation of magic in practicality (which doesn't involve ingesting stuff that alters your mind, stoners and shamans are cheaters!), because those are just emotions and impressions taken from your brain and manifested into the real world (just like a magic spell!), and it can have intensely deep effects on people just by them absorbing it, and I think that's really fucking cool.
That's not even getting into one of my biggest interests, astronomy. The universe, hell even just our galaxy, is something so gigantic that it's hard to wrap your head around, but that's what makes it special. Photos are impressive enough. We got to truly see Pluto for the first time ever and that still gives me a wonderful, tingly feeling. Our generation was the first and that is truly special.
We also got to see the supermassive black hole in Messier 87, we're the first people to ever directly image a supermassive black hole. This is stuff that will actually be in history books, it's astounding. But even going beyond photos, who knows what's out there, waiting to be discovered? That thought legit fills me with more excitement than pretty much anything. x) I know many people don't like the idea that we're in a cold, uncaring universe, but I feel that makes us incredibly lucky. Even though I think our understanding of the universe will always be incredibly small, the fact that we've gotten to the point we are now is super impressive.
One last thing, I don't think aliens fit under the umbrella of paranormal, but I have little doubt they exist in some form. I don't think we've been visited or abducted or any of that stuff, nor do I think we ever will, but I do not believe humanity is special. Even if it's just some bacteria on some far off planet, there has to be something. Life is likely exceedingly rare, but in something as big as our universe, rare things happen all the time. I guess that's the closest thing I have to a faith haha. And it truly fills me with excitement and gets my imagination pumping like very few things do.
Preach it, Velma! I wish I had more to add, but that was well put.We have full computers in our pockets that can communicate with anyone around the world instantly. We have gaming devices that can hold thousands of games at once from across gaming history. A full library of books, music, and movies can be digitized and pocketed. And we can flash freeze fish so they can be eaten raw without dying. We don't have magic, but I'd say we're close enough.
This is also true. Our current technology alone would be enough to make someone from the middle ages have a heart attack (if our illnesses didn't get to them first, or vice versa), let alone what technology will look like in 300 years (not too positive we'll make it that long) to modern day people. That's why I find science so wonderful.I think that if science evolves enough it would become indistinguable from actual magic.