We've all been exposed to tales of wizards, witches, and their crystal balls or space fairing adventurers using communication devices and computers to assist them; but how many have given thought to the fact that not only have our minds as a society developed the science fiction but even the fantasy fiction has evolved into our reality as well.
As a youth being told stories from fairy tales and watching Disney™ adaptations, the thought definitely could have crossed one's mind. At that time watching from a glass tube as a fantasy character utilized their magical crystal ball to view others and predict outcomes, that in many ways the television was very much a similar magic. Being introduced to the early computers of that time only reinforced that notion, since the commodore64™ plugged into the television as its monitor. Today the idea is not only reinforced with the magic current technology and computers can provide, but the science has even expanded on the ideas of old, with devices such as Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's) turning the ball like tube into a flat display while removing the ball this still reinforced the notion by use of crystal.
While some may have given thought to the communicators from Star Trek™ among other devices from science fiction that have become a reality of sorts today, how many influences of the past have possibly impacted the developments of our technologies as well? While the past generations may not have had the full-on science, the ideas of such means have all developed from the collaborative imaginations of humankind over time. Though many ideas and inventions may be new in some regard, the idea of their potential offerings has always come from the imaginings of the impossible made possible. Growing up during the 1980's into current times, it surprises few from that era that almost every household has a home computer today, and why not Batman™ had a huge computer he kept in a cave under his house to name one of the major icons of youth from that era. It could even be suggested that society bred the youth into such an acceptance as it slowly became more of a reality.
It goes without saying that if we could pluck a person from the past and drop them into our present day culture, the further back we went to procure that person the greater the odds of their interpretation of today's science being that of magic, witchcraft, or gifts from an omnipotent power of sorts. It may be possible over time to clarify that science unlocked these devices through the machinations of their relatives into the future; but as the science has developed into what it is today how easily could we individually explain such a science without surrendering to dubbing it magic? Even those entrenched in the field of technology use the term wizard in description of those that might stand a better chance at the explanation!
Technology has certainly brought our society a long way over the ages, and will likely continue to, but as with so many things within our lives the impacts of the past will persistently resonate themselves into the future. Perhaps the churches and governors of the past that had feared the developing young sciences as they emerged outlawing them, had some idea of just how much magic may be lost with understanding. As desensitized as each next generation may be to the wonder provided from technology, it definitely stands to reason that with how complex the full understanding of such devices can be the term magic will likely always be a fair fallback even if the truth of it is science.
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