Technology isn't magic: it's better than that

In the 1973 version of his essay, Hazards of Prophecy, Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ In the same essay, Clarke suggested that certain fundamental advances in science and technology, such as the discovery of radioactivity, and its use in fields as diverse as medicine, energy and warfare, were so far beyond the experience and expectations of previous times that people from those times could not even begin to understand them.

I think that technology architects should challenge and embrace this idea at the same time.

We should challenge the idea that advanced technology must be as mysterious as magic. Magic seems to me to be something that we not only do not understand, but something that we cannot understand: if books and films are anything to go by, we are dealing with magic when we can figure out effects but we cannot fully explain causes (if we could, then wouldn’t it be science or technology?).

As technology architects, we have to have faith that technology is something which can be understood. This is especially true when we are faced with new technology which we don’t understand, or when we are trying to explain technology we understand well to people who know nothing of it. It can be difficult to get ideas into our head, and even more difficult to get ideas from our head into the heads of others. When we are struggling with such difficulty, though, we should remember that all technology is the invention of humans, so it should be possible for other humans to grasp it.

At the same time, we should embrace the idea that technology can be as much a source of wonder and mystery as magic. It is remarkably easy to forget how wonderful technology is, especially when we work with it every day. When technology is part of our job, we get used to breaking down problems into smaller and smaller components (eventually into single lines of code), and getting those components to behave as we want them to can be a grinding and frustrating task. But it’s great when it works - and even better when we take a step back and consider the amazing things that we have built.

Here are a few suggestions to help technology architects achieve a balance between understanding and wonder.

Unveil the mysteries by seeking fundamentals

Technology can always be understood - if we start from the right place. When we are struggling to understand technology, it’s usually because we haven’t yet found the right place to stand. And, as technology architects should seek an understanding which is deep rather than superficial, the right place for us to stand is on the foundations. If you don’t yet understand, if it all still feels like magic to you, you should keep asking how things work, until you reach answers you already understand, or truths which can be reduced no further.

Make magic mundane by sharing your understanding

Part of the role of the technology architect is to dispel hype, the glamour and illusion which surrounds many technologies. Without explanation, this glamour and illusion can confuse our less technically expert colleagues, and lead them to strange decisions. If we have unveiled the mysteries, if we have discovered the foundations of a technology, then we are in a position to educate our colleagues. We do not need to make everybody an expert, but we need to build them a place to stand, from which we and they can make good decisions together.

Don’t forget to wonder

Just as in science, figuring out how something works need not strip it of all wonder. I believe that understanding how the universe came into being, how things work at the smallest and largest levels, and how life evolved, add to our wonder at the world rather than detract from it. I believe that understanding the fundamentals of technology similarly enhances our experience: for example, when you know how technology works, the journey of a packet of data from the browser on your phone to the systems deep in a company and back again seems that much more miraculous.

Remember that the real magic of technology is the people who build and run it

I’d made it this far without mentioning current events and the impact of COVID-19, but I can’t get to the end of this article without acknowledging them. In this difficult time, those of us fortunate enough to have access to tools and technologies to help us stay connected should be grateful for them, and think about how much harder this would all be if they weren’t there. We should be especially grateful for all those people working behind the scenes to upgrade and overhaul global infrastructure at a speed and scale we have never seen before.

We should also remember this when things don’t quite work perfectly: the next time the magic box that lets us speak to each other from opposite sides of the planet stumbles or stutters, we should remember how incredible it is that we can talk to each other at all.

Technology is wonderful because we built it and we can understand it. It’s better than magic in books and films because it relies on real magic - the people who make it possible.