One of the things I like about programming is it feels like legit magic. You infuse a lightning stone with words of power that bend its mind to your will.
One must be cautious. The stone will do what is asked of it. Exactly what is asked of it. Ask carefully.
Computers and tech in general often feels like magic. The first computer I ever used was a ZX Spectrum, now I have something vastly more computationally powerful, and constantly connected to a worldwide communication network and knowledge repository in my pocket!
It's amazing any of it actually works, especially as we don't always seem to know how it works.
Wireless is magic and no technical jargon can convince me otherwise. How do you begin to troubleshoot magic?
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”
Arthur C. Clarke, 1962, “Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible”
Well, it's not quite fantasy, but the Laundry Files novels by Charles Stross merge the concept of "math/algorithms is magic" with lovecraftian horror and satire.
There is something similar in Daemon (or maybe in the sequel Freedom™) in which
::: spoiler extremely minor spoiler they enchant an invisibility ring, and the ritual is a sequence of steps involving a physical object. In the end, the ring is "tracked" by the AI so that who wears it is automatically removed from surveillance videos :::
Its basically why one of windows 11s goals is complete rewrite of the start bar. Just to get away from legacy spaghetti code from ME.
