Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology

Raymond Chen

An informal tradition in a former group was that whenever somebody bought a new car, we all went out to lunch to celebrate, but the person with the new car had to be one of the drivers. During one of our new-car trips, the proud owner of the new car showed off its fancy features. “Check this out, this car has a voice-controlled radio: Radio, On.” The car radio turned on. “Radio, Select KUOW.” The radio changed its station. “Radio, louder.” The volume went up. But this wasn’t a demonstration of voice-recognition technology. It was a magic trick. You see, the car has radio controls built into the back of the steering wheel.

[Raymond is currently away; this message was pre-recorded.]

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