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Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by coldtea on Friday September 05, 2014 @08:24AM (#8273459)
Well, consciouness from non-conscious materials is as close to magic as it gets...
Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by svalorzen on Friday September 05, 2014 @09:08AM (#8273633)
Light from non-luminous materials is as close to magic as it gets.. (lamps)

Computations from non-computing materials is as close to magic as it gets.. (computers)

Movement from non-moving materials is as close to magic as it gets.. (engines)

Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by coldtea on Friday September 05, 2014 @05:48PM (#8276501)
Nope, just consciousness from non-conscious materials.

There are no non-moving materials. Engines move (e.g pistons), and there's molecular and electron flow. Now, if you had said movement from zero Kelvin, actually non moving materials, that would really be magic. Or, light without photons (which ARE luminous).

The only real valid analogy IMO is "computations from non-computing materials". But the materials are indeed computing -- computing just means having a state, and being able to keep it or change it under certain conditions.

Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by inclemnet on Friday September 05, 2014 @09:04AM (#8273627)
Then 'as close to magic as it gets' is 'not magic', and there isn't really a conflict here.
Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by eli_gottlieb on Friday September 05, 2014 @08:50AM (#8273558)
Having magic in your worldview indicates your lack of understanding, not the existence of magic.
Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by doppioslash on Friday September 05, 2014 @10:31AM (#8274043)
If you don't accept that there is something we haven't yet explained because we haven't found the right paradigm to explain it yet you're stopping the evolution of science at the current level.

At the moment science has a materialistic view, but for all we know in a 100 years they'll discover things that we're unable to imagine now as we are thinking within science's current principles.

So magic is just undocumented science :P

Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by eli_gottlieb on Friday September 05, 2014 @12:49PM (#8274880)
>At the moment science has a materialistic view,

And for all we know in 100 years we'll be able to causally interact with something nonphysical? Scientific epistemology is based on where and when we can have causal contact, not on assuming that things are "material".

Re:Your Brain on Metaphors by whocares on Friday September 05, 2014 @09:20AM (#8273685)
No, it indicates neither.

It actually indicates an area that is not explained currently by science and that some people theorise about in a "non-scientific" or anecdotal way. This has been illustrated many times by herbs used by traditional healers (using anecdotal reasoning) which were ignored by science until the technology existed to test the herbs for medicinal purposes.

Traditional forms of human knowledge ("magic") may not be "scientific" but it does not indicate a lack of understanding. The movement of epistemology from magic to science is a spectrum not a series of hard stops. The world is grey, not black and white.