Followup to: Joy in the Merely Real, Joy in Discovery, If You Demand Magic, Magic Won’t Help
As you may recall from some months earlier, I think that part of the rationalist ethos is binding yourself emotionally to an absolutely lawful reductionistic universe – a universe containing no ontologically basic mental things such as souls or magic – and pouring all your hope and all your care into that merely real universe and its possibilities, without disappointment.
There’s an old trick for combating dukkha where you make a list of things you’re grateful for, like a roof over your head.
So why not make a list of abilities you have that would be amazingly cool if they were magic, or if only a few chosen individuals had them?
For example, suppose that instead of one eye, you possessed a magical second eye embedded in your forehead. And this second eye enabled you to see into the third dimension – so that you could somehow tell how far away things were – where an ordinary eye would see only a two-dimensional shadow of the true world. Only the possessors of this ability can accurately aim the legendary distance-weapons that kill at ranges far beyond a sword, or use to their fullest potential the shells of ultrafast machinery called "cars".
"Binocular vision" would be too light a term for this ability. We’ll only appreciate it once it has a properly impressive name, like Mystic Eyes of Depth Perception.
So here’s a list of some of my favorite magical powers:
Continue reading "Mundane Magic" »
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