The penultimate chapter reviews possible future developments in magic. With the amazing advances in technology, will magic eventually become obsolete? Will technology one day make magic tricks trivial because everybody can do them? Science has already made some amazing advances and will in the near future enable us to do things previously deemed impossible. See for example: Five Forms of Black Magic That Science is Making Possible.

Will magic performances still make sense if, for example, anyone can levitate objects using the latest anti-gravity stickers or decks of cards made from paper-thin LCD screens that can change their design automatically.

There is no need to be so pessimistic. Magic however, always have a place in human culture as magicians have always incorporated the latest technology in their acts. Swiss magician Marco Tempest is one of the current crop of avant-garde magicians that experiments with interweaving information technology into his shows.

A glimpse into the future of magic by Marco Tempest

Although science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”, it does not mean that magic will disappear. Our mind’s ability to be deceived is independent from technology and magic as a performance art will most likely never disappear.

If you are interested in reading more about the future of magic, go to the bibliography or buy Perspectives on Magic and other books on the science of magic from the bookshop.