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Honestly, I feel most things would depending on how far back you go:
If you've only known stairs your whole life, a lift would seem like a teleportation device.
If you've never even seen a wheel, a car would look like a loud metal monster.
If your whole world has been the one village you grew up in, the Internet is just plain incomprehensible.
If you're used to making fire with a flint, a simple lighter (especially one without a flint in it) would seem like a magical device already.
Now, I'm not saying you couldn't explain these concepts to them. People in the past where far less stupid than we often think, they just didn't have the vast knowledge we currently rely on. But if you where to show these things to them without any context, they'd probably think you're a witch or something
I somewhat disagree. As you said people weren't idiots, they just lack the contextual understanding we have.
Take a car for example. Even if you'd never seen a wheel, it would surely be easy to understand how it works just by seeing a car roll by. You may not immediately understand how its moving itself but I don't think that means you would conclude its magic. You could think it's biological, but honestly concluding that it's a machine doesn't seem that unlikely to me.
Also the internet... I think most modern people just think it's magic really.
I once talked to a guy on Reddit who had a version of this turned up to 11.
I don't remember the exact times so I'll guess but it'll get the point across.
He boarded the New York Subway at 8:42am September 11, 2001, and got off at 8:50am.
Dude was just having a normal day walking onto that train and the next station was in a totally different dimension.
Judging from my years in networking, not only most people, but many in IT see it as magic.
Agreed, we're still intuitive creatures. An elevator may seem otherworldly for a moment but that feeling would quickly fade once you saw the cables and pulleys causing the cab to ascend/descend. It may be one of those "I've never thought of that but it makes sense" sort of revelations over "this is impossible"
Especially because for most of history magic was accepted as reality by most people. So any aspect of the elevator that didn’t make sense to them, like the buttons and power, could be attributed to magic without much consternation.
Nowadays most (non-religious) people think “well there must be an explanation, I wonder how they achieved that, I’ll get to the bottom of this.” But before public schools, the scientific method, and an understanding of the natural laws, regular folk would just accept the unexplainable as magic, ghosts, demons, etc. People accepted that Hermes’ shoes just worked, or that Jesus could turn water into wine.
Humans are inquisitive creatures sure, but we’re also superstitious creatures who would often rather invent an explanation than admit we can’t explain it. And when you live in a world where even a rainbow or the stars are unexplainable, you get used to mythical explanations. You grow up with the people you love and trust giving you these explanations.
It’s the outliers who had the time and disposition — Aristotle, Newton, etc — that we celebrate today for bucking that trend. But they were the exception, not the rule. Archimedes may have spent the rest of his days studying that elevator, but 99% of his contemporaries would have said “By Zeus what a marvelous gift from the gods”, stared at it for a while, and then returned to toiling in the fields and quarries.
That was exactly the point I was trying to make
Sure. It's a machine. That moves and clearly has some sort of dragon roaring when woken up!
Yep. The internet is definitely magic.
A lift and cars are pretty easy actually. People have messed around with mechanical tools since before the pyramids. They'd be amazed by a car for sure, but they'd understand it's a complicated machine.