The following article is based on the presentation I gave at EthCC 2025 in Cannes.
If you are reading this, you are probably also interested in tech and see the potential in its power to move us from a mundane reality towards one that is filled with magic and delight.
But even though the possibilities seem impressive, why are we barely scratching the surface of making the most out of 21st-century tech? And how might we build products that spread the joy and awe we felt when we were first exposed to it?
Tricks vs. experiences
I spent a lot of time reading magic books and watching videos, and felt like there were two different definitions for “magic”. Consider the difference between magic tricks and magical experiences. In the show business of magic, tricks are seen as fooling promises of the impossible and a fleeting moment of excitement, which usually come at the cost of the attention or money of the observer. Here is a video of what I would consider a well-performed trick:
The experience seems fun and impressive for a moment, but we’re also fully aware of being deceived. From the start of the aesthetic performance, we’re thinking - oh, he’s doing “something” there, part of our attention is dedicated to his masterful use of sleight of hand. In the best case, we’re delighted to have spent time watching it and move on with our lives.
However, before the rise of society and the technosphere, magic was used to symbolise conscious control over nature and the prediction of the future. Using rituals that involved the entire community, a mythical and sacred experience was meant to restore, recover, and elevate society.
The images above are from childbirth in Thailand. During the difficult birth, it was uncertain whether the child would survive. But after the village came together to perform a sacred ritual, a healthy child was born, and the villagers reconnected by sharing and witnessing an experience that previously seemed impossible.
Magical experiences leave us with a memorable sense of mystery, delight, serendipity, and wonder. We’re briefly asking ourselves - how did that work? But the intense feeling of awe dominates our awareness and confronts us with what we believed to be impossible. It transforms our perspective, the shared experience connects us to our peers, and we remember it for a very long time.
The technology to make the trick in the first example happen is sleight of hand. The technology enabling the experience in the second example, “Yu-Fai“ - a Thai postpartum ritual which uses a combination of medical herbs, steam, massages, compresses, healing foods, as well as mantras and prayers to help the child and mother acclimate to the environment.
And in my observation, most of our technology today (in the best case) is more akin to the first example; it may look elegant at first, but it also makes us feel tricked. It claims to be magical, but it’s obvious that something is happening behind the scenes, and it doesn’t always leave a lasting positive impact on us.
How might we make tech magical?
I have been following the web3 space closely since 2015, and I finally see evidence for teams who have a lot in common with some of the greatest magic in history. They seem to have the necessary perseverance and technology to achieve these transformative and lasting experiences. They also have a strong value-driven perspective of using that technology for lasting, delightful experiences, that may seem impossible at first.
In essence, they all strive to do the following:
Decide how to “control nature” or “predict the future” (of society)
Make the mechanics of the technology invisible to emphasise the experience
Confirm that they are able to reconnect, restore, or transform society in a lasting and meaningful way
Next time, I’ll go into some tangible examples and how to make it happen. Until then -
Let’s experiment together!
Balint and I are experimenting with an online session for creators and builders to co-create real world use cases from technologies that excite us. We’ll explore some high impact examples and create user journeys/experience maps to see what a “magical” experience could look like - and how we might build it.
See you all next time!
Reference material
Exploring the influence of magic performance on design creativity
Tong Li a, Lawrence E. McCalla b, Hua Zheng c, Yuhan Lin d
Don Norman - The Design of Everyday Things