Magical thinking

[MattH]

My wife and I have been fans of science fiction and fantasy science childhood.  This morning we were discussing magic in various fantasy worlds, and I noted that Technomages in Babylon Five are not magical; they use science and technology in ways that might as well be magic.  She said, "but isn't simulating magic dishonest?"  I replied, "well they are just filling the archetype of the mage in a society where advanced technology has driven the magic away, and anyhow for most people we scientists might as well be magicians, because no matter how hard we try to educate the public most people don't want to understand what we do."  She replied, "that's because rational thought is too hard for them!"  I then remarked, "and during the bubble lots of people were equally uninterested in hard thought about finances, figuring the magic of the market would take care of everything."

[Anonymous]

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@MattH wrote:

figuring the magic of the market would take care of everything."

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That was some bad voodoo magic. LOL

[Anonymous]

Ditto on the science fiction and fantasy, I have loved and still love my share of them. My first exposure to it was playing D&D in jr. high and then reading Bradbury stories in science fiction literature (yeap, we had that class in high school, focusing on science fiction and having to actually write a short story to pass the course). So that being said, I have been disappointed in the total lack of critical thinking by the majority of people which shocks me that common sense and desire to be more informed and intelligent has been slowly going away in our society and the new generation, despite all the technology and ample access to information, is surprisingly aloof and ignorant on the important things that affect their lives and others. I have always been criticized for being too serious, thinking too much, analyzing everything and so on and I tell people, if protecting my own interests and those of people who rely on me is unpopular and makes me a geek or an egghead or whatever, I will take it over when you are on your knees crying because you got screwed for not thinking ENOUGH. Also, some people tend to lose the boundary between fiction and real and tend to bury their heads which I think also leads to much of the fallacies of logic and lack of proper thinking.

[Anonymous]

The Morlocks and the Eloi...

(How come every time I think of the Eloi, I get hungry?    )

[Anonymous]

Not sure but now that you said it, I am hungry? Power of suggestion maybe?

[MattH]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The Morlocks and the Eloi...

(How come every time I think of the Eloi, I get hungry?    )

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What proportion of Eloi have Law degrees or MBA degrees

[Anonymous]

lol you guys seem to break things down the way we do.

as for the technomages, seriously its jsut like the mages of the past.  they have some sort of advanced science and non-understanding people look at it as magic.  Just like medic men.  Its all magic until the science behind it is understood.

as for the rationale of people during the bubble, there were obviously very few of us sitting around watching it waiting for the fall.  It didn't come for so long that a lot of people thought it would never come, and they got comfortable.  the rise, and fall, seemed like magic, bad juju, karma, or jsut plain bad luck.   But when you break it down and look at the science behind it all...its very clear that they all did it to themselves and it was something that ballooned on itself.  Those who are still mystified by it are in serious denial and just don't want to take responsibility for it.

[Anonymous]

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@MattH wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

The Morlocks and the Eloi...

(How come every time I think of the Eloi, I get hungry?    )

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What proportion of Eloi have Law degrees or MBA degrees

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Just the first course (and ya gotta be careful of the bones...)