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Hmmm, just thinking back to 1982, that's when i first had a computer. The gorgeous 48k ZX Spectrum, then i look at the xbox 360 i have now...we've come so far in such a short space of time haven't we...

And in general, huge advances in all things electronic - we can quickly re-design and miniaturise things more and more...these advances are huge steps taken on an almost daily basis...

Recently, some German scientists have developed a colour projector the size of a matchbox....yes, a matchbox, ok - it has problems with green colours at the moment, but even so...

So, what has this to do with magic you fool?! i hear you ask...well...

What is our future in magic eh? Do you think that somethings will forever be eradicated from our art because of electronics? How about the "posh pro" stuff on sites like Alakazam?

What will happen when that becomes so cheap to produce, what skills do you think we potentially lose out on? peeks? secret two way signals? impression devices?

we could end up, worse case scenario - having just a series of electronic effects; silicon-chip self-workers if you will...

Do you think this will happen? Do you care? Shall we kill all robots now and stop the rot?

I feel there will be very interesting developments over the next five years - leaps and bounds brothers and sisters, leaps and bounds...

Prices will drop, effects will be raised to a whole new level, but skills may be lost....fight the good fight brothers and sisters, fight the good fight!

Keep your skills honed, keep your secrets...well, secret...and most importantly, wear clean underwear...

Electronics - is it our future, or our undoing?

I think that it will take a lot longer before electronic devices are commonly used by most magicians on in the majority of magic effects. I don't know of many effects that use electronic devices, but could certainly think of a few uses of certain devices.
Whilst I believe that electronic devices will be used in magic, I think that the majority of tricks will still be that - tricks. I still think that most people will use sleight of hand or other techniques to achieve their effects rather than electronic devices.

Excellent question! This is something I have pondered myself more than a few times before.

For example, what are the chances magic will still be around in, say, a million years? If it is then what are the chances that there will still be good old sleight of hand?

There will obviously be major advances in technology and it's more than likely that a bit of it will be incorporated in to magic. If in a million years or so all the magicians are using technology to work their miracles it's nice to imagine some guy coming along, having studied the lost books on sleight of hand, and blowing those techie-magicians away.

In many years to come I'm sure a lot of our more technological methods will be known to the general public. New methods will have to be found. I hate the idea of gizmos taking over from sleight of hand. Or, maybe, sleights will live on because everyone knows everything about technology? Who can say. I'm not even sure what I've been saying myself in this post .

http://www.alakazam.co.uk/acatalog/Fabr ... gic_1.html

...just using the above link as a basic example - imagine if you could in a couple of years time buy some of the above for maybe 60-100 quid or so...

I think technology has little to no bearing on the most of magic. Magic has and always will change and develop with time.
Yes it's true that there may be some future technology that will negate some trick or other by the coincedence that will perform a function that upto now will seem magical but then that same invention might have new applications within the magic field itself.
The classics of magic will always be around. Card, rope elastic bands etc. are unlikely to change in the future as they are what they are.
Also for example a relatively new device, the mobile phone, has already spawned several tricks that exploit the camera inbuilt into it.

I always think it belittles magic when people put it down to the sleights or gimmicks used.
I know a few cracking jokes but a comedian it certainly doesn't make me. There is far much more to it than that (a fact I'm having to learn the hard way with my first stage gig next Weds and still not having enough patter or indeed a stage act).
This is a very interesting question to pose though and can't wait to hear others thoughts on this as I am often known to be incredibly wrong

New peek devices, tiny secreted cameras in the lids of pens, all kinds of things - even the current stuff like Midas, if that became easier to build/produce, someone somewhere is likely to release it at a cheaper and cheaper price...and then that becomes super-seeded by other electronic devices...

maybe it'll be like old folklore, red indian history and so on, passed on through stories from father to son, mother to daughter...

maybe electronics could be the eventual salvation of magic? it'll make it go back underground - with electronic devices being seen as the normal way of performing miracles...

...and people will start talking in hushed toned about the people "from years back" that could vanish coins, read minds and make cards bend on the top of their hands...all without gizmos and electronic devices...

maybe not 5-10 years, but fairly soon i reckon...

Exactly my point .

Absolutely, 100% true that performance is worth so much more than methodology...but I'd hate it if the classic methods were forgotten over the years.

There's an old story about the door to door vacuum cleaner salesman who was desperate to sell his products and vowed to himself that, no matter what happened, he would not take 'no' for an answer at the next house he called on. Eventually he arrived at one house way out in the country where a husband and wife had been living for well over 60 years of wedded bliss. He knocked on the door and immediately went into his sales pitch about how they were obviously getting on in years, how the daily cleaning chores must be getting a bit much for them etc and how his amazing vacuum cleaner would solve all their problems at a stroke. The old man just about managed to get a word in and said, 'Sorry son we…' but the salesman ignored him and just carried on extolling the virtues of the appliance. He took out a bag of soot and threw it on the carpet, he then took out a bag of soil and threw that down as well. Again the old man said, 'Sorry son but…' but the salesman was having none of it, he took out a bag of sawdust and threw that down on the previous mess then triumphantly said, 'This is a real mess and it would certainly take hours to clean up by hand. My amazing new vacuum cleaner will do all that in a matter of a few minutes!' He unwound the electric flex and said, 'Look, I'll show you how easy it is - where can I plug this in?'. The old man looked at him reproachfully and said, 'That's what I've been trying to tell you son, we don’t have any electric or gas, only paraffin for heating, cooking and light - looks like you'll be here cleaning all that up by hand for a while'.

And the moral of that tale is, electronics are fine but what happens when the batteries run out, the contacts get corroded or the circuit boards fail etc? Best guess would be to keep the ID handy !

Also the the limitations of technology is the fact that generally each "gadget" has a specific function. So inorder to do a range of different tricks you would need many gadgets trapped to legs, arms and other appendages.
I for one dont fancy leaving the house looking like robocop.

At the end of the day anyone with a genuine interest in magic wants to be adept at what are sometimes difficult skilled task. For example I know I can easily get away with never having to do a classic force or pass but I am still attempting to learn these. Why? I have no idea other than I want to be the best magician I can be.
Does this mean I wont ever use gadgets and gismos? Nope as sometimes they are brilliant but nothing beats say using a borrowed deck and, by using skills you have taken time to learn, entertain people on the fly.
Technology, I love it and welcome it all....I'm especially waiting for a device that will let me remote control a real monkey. Cruel? yes. Fun? Definitely

I sold vacuum cleaners door to door once. It wasn't fun...................

Reminds me of Paul Harris this whole vacuum talk .

Selling vacuum cleaners sucks.....

when the russians and americans got together to talk about space flight, the americans started on about their massive budget just to get one up on the ruskies. The russians were using sixties and seventies stuff with upgarade after upgrade on it and it looked old.
The yanks said that they had spent more on a zero gravity pen than the ruskies had on their main capsual. They went on abour the pens titanium lightness the pressure being just right for zero gravity and the ultra expensive ink and delivery to nib technology, the russians asked how much the pen cost. The yanks said over a million, to which they replied 'thats a bit of a waste we use a pencil'.

Lets be honest we magicians are to tight to buy electronics when we can do our magic for free with just a bit practice.

Then again we are also lazy...........so if the price were right........the wife was out......

Selling anything sucks.. unless ur actually selling it!!

What will happen when the device comes into play for totally self contained magic.. ''Just hold the deck in your hands and this little gimmick, will perform the d/l, pass, force.. all to perfection.. totally undetectable''.. how many little runts would we see running round then>? What if magic became so wrapped up in gadgets this filtered through to mainstream marketing, where every latest technological gadget is snatched up by those with more money than sense.. where will magic be confined to then>? Where people run around showing off magic tricks like they do with.. lets say.. IPODS or mobile phones.. '' Hey look what this can do.. and look, this is how it does it' Where will all us magicians be then.. What will happen to magic at this point?

Well.. we will just have to create a new genre of sleight of hand.. re-invent it.. evolve with the times... open up the parts of the human brain we currently, and no computer can ever match.. The sun will not stop shining, the moon will not stop smiling, the rain will not stop falling... and Magic will never die!!

Just a brief thought here.

I believe there will always be a place for magic.

Once everything has been computerised there will still be us out there making the computer disappear or multply!