The Blackbox Trick: Magic in the Age of Techno-governance and Corporate Secrecy

• Published in: C magazine (1992) no. 141; pp. 39 - 47
• Main Authors: Hamamoto, Chris, Villoro, Federico Pérez
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Toronto C the Visual Arts Foundation 01.04.2019
• Subjects: 18th century; Big Data; Catholic churches; Contemporary art; Corporate culture; Criminal sentences; Cryptography; Empiricism; Foucault, Michel; Harari, Yuval Noah; Magic & magicians; Religion; Science; Secularism; Urbanism
• ISSN: 1480-5472; 1923-3795

[...]in the famous Egg Bag trick, a magician pulls more objects out of a small bag than it would seem able to hold. [...]the period's proponents of rationality regarded magic with suspicion-ineffable, mystical, beyond accountability. Companies will go as far as filing patents with the aim of confusing competitors by hiding their intentions within a deluge of less important patents. Since 2008, Amazon Technologies Inc. alone has filed more than 5,860 patents, many of which are for innovations that seem superficial and even absurd.4 The use of patents was once a key strategy of magicians, who would create false patents for their tricks in an attempt to misdirect those wishing to reverse-engineer their techniques. [...]words like "enchantment," "glamour" and "fascination"- not uncommon throughout the history of advertising-come from the world of sorcery. According to Noah Harari, this might extend to all aspects of our social lives- from shopping, to dating, to voting.