Magic: art & science

From an article in the NYT Magazine :

Magic” is a word that Apple uses often these days. The iPad was introduced last year as a “magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” And “magic” is also a word that appears in discussions about programming. Computer code is considered magic when it accomplishes highly complex operations while appearing simple. By this definition, the Internet is magic. It turns experiences from the material world that used to be ridiculously complicated — involving licking stamps, say, or winding clocks — into frictionless, flashing and fantastic abstractions. As Lawrence Lessig puts it, “The digital world has more in common with the world of ideas than with the world of things.

Huh. Now throw in art. Discuss.