Science in the twentieth century is largely the story of stealing ideas that may have some strategic military value and whisking them away into black projects where they are then fed on unlimited funding for decades, the results of which occasionally show in up in the real world as buildings turning to dust mid-air, gnomic pronouncements from Russian prime ministers, planet-wide surveillance systems running off your own phone’s battery or Raytheon-branded flying saucers buzzing hiking groups in national parks. For the magician, competence is required not only in science’s theories or belief
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