Adventures in magic

Arthur C. Clarke is quoted/paraphrased as suggesting that any sufficiently advanced science is, to the average person, indistinguishable from magic. For most of this year, I have been directly involved with machines that aim radiation at various parts of my body, follow existing pathways (and carving some where none have heretofore existed) to find and (mostly) repair various faults, and a whole host of otherwise normal people who understand all of this stuff.

Personally, the "simple" act of pushing a needle into an arm or elsewhere, placing the point in the middle of an unseen blood vessel, and removing, replacing, or augmenting extant fluids seems more than a little magical. I can't explain it, it strikes me as entirely counter-intuitive, but when the practitioners do it, it works.

I know people who fear anything they can't explain. They are either so bright that they grasp some negative intent missed by the rest of thus, or they have been "educated" in a system where the purpose is to narrow the students' horizons and reinforce the prejudices of their parents/religion/community. Like the machines and most of modern medicine, I don't understand how they work. About all I can summon up is a great pity for them and a greater pity for their children