In our scientific age, magic has been reduced to conjurers and wands. Yet, Newton and Wittgenstein saw the accounts of science as ultimately inexplicable. Should we see our theories as limited and, in a sense, magical or would this undermine all knowledge?

In our recent IAI TV debate on this subject, mathematician George Ellis sided with Newton: science will not uncover every mystery in the universe; there are some questions best left to philosophers.

Ellis made his name focusing on some of the big questions of cosmology and relativity. Along with Stephen Hawking, he co-authored 1973’s The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, which attempted to describe the very foundations of space itself. More recently, Ellis has been focusing on top-down causation. 

Here he speaks to the IAI about the dangers of magic, the importance of mystery, and the line that separates science from philosophy.

Arthur C Clarke’s third law of science fiction states that: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Does that apply to the levels of science and technology that we have reached today?