Number 4 is kind of correct, but I suspect the family member means it in a magical kind of miraculous?
Right, as in something other than the result of careful research and development. She’s just older and doesn’t have the slightest idea how anything works, habitually trying three different appliances to warm up her coffee when the power goes out before realizing they all need electricity, so it’s all just magic and mystery.
Then again, it’s people like us who say things like “computers are just rocks we tricked into thinking by putting lightning inside of them” so I don’t not get it.
Calling something magic because you’re using that to mean “something made with science beyond my understanding” is definitely different from using it as “this is literally magic made by sorcerers”.
One is a joke, the other is evidence of the failure of the educational system.
It’s absolutely mind-blowing to me that people discovered how to get electric into homes not 200 years ago and now we have really powerful computers in our pockets.
No need for fancy stories about rocks and lightning. And the absolute majority of people have no idea how most common household stuff works, because it just werks and you have running water, heating and cooling, refrigerators, hot showers and what not
