HACKER Q&A
📣 Raed667

What technology seems like magic to you?


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke


  👤 shrimp_emoji Accepted Answer ✓
Quantum computing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsch%E2%80%93Jozsa_algorith...

This seems like violating info theoretic limits, like being able to read a whole book by only reading a single letter, by sprinkling quantum lingo over the problem.


👤 o_nate
Airplanes. Seriously I don't know of any other technology that feels as magical to me as that feeling when an airplane leaves the ground.

👤 dtagames
Github Copilot feels like magic when it correctly copies or implies things from code that I just wrote. Or when it auto-completes with my own names/functions/etc. Essentially, it types what I was just about to type 90% of the time.

👤 guenthert
Organ transplantation. Cutting it out of the donor (without killing him/her) seems like advanced science and skill, but plugging it into the receiver so that it works is pure magic.

👤 aizyuval
Telescopes generally. James Webb specifically. Being able to marvel at objects light years away, and having (large) glimpses to the past. A time machine aswell as a teleporter.

👤 lnwlebjel
Brains. We have essentially the same neurons, same transmitters, same proteins, etc. as a fruit fly. But for every one they have, we have 100 million. Emergent characteristics are like magic.

👤 solardev
Electricity. I still don't get why you can connect copper to sand and lemons and end up with bright things and video games. It's all a mystery to me.

👤 night-rider
Booting any form of computer. It's a miracle each time, and taken for granted that it works every time too. I used to have machines that failed to boot, usually due to plain wear and tear, but I get a new device roughly every ~5 years so it's a non-issue now.

👤 2143
Not technology as such, but here goes:

1. Stock market. I just don't get it, beyond a superficial understanding.

2. Oil futures market. My brain just melts trying to make sense of it.


👤 incomingpain
I have now 3 times attempted to research and understand quantum computing.

I know assembly for my nop sleds, so I'm ahead of the curve knowing how silicon works. I just don't get QC. It's magic.


👤 marto1
Capillary action. Still doesn't make any sense to me.

👤 mradek
Plumbing. I’m from a developing country and when I moved to USA the plumbing here makes me feel super impressed. Somehow it works.

👤 trh0awayman
CPU fabrication

👤 scombridae
How an office printer manages to pick out a single sheet from the tray.

👤 scombridae
Google search. How so fast?

Google autocomplete. How so accurate?

Good job Google!