use of the word "invokes"

[Steve Owens <uso01%eagle -at- UNIDATA -dot- COM>]

> "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."

"...or a rigged demonstration." (programmer's addendum :-)

> Would love to credit this, but I don't recall the distinguished author.

        Arthur C. Clarke coined the first, though, and it's generally
referred to as "Clarke's Law" in the science fiction community.  The
actual quote runs (I think) "Any sufficiently advanced technology..."

        I checked a handy Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations, but
apparently this one is too weird for them.  The only Clarke quote they
have is another famous one:

        "If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something
is possible, he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is
impossible, he is very probably wrong."

        This is something I like to reflect on as I grow older (still a
child to some, I'm sure, who would chuckle at hearing me say this).  I
feel strongly that you gain experience with age, experience being more
not just factual knowledge, but learning about ways of thinking.  This
is both good and bad - you can avoid dead ends young minds might pursue,
and apply your thinking more efficiently, but at the same time, this
leads to a tendency to not think of new things.

Steven J. Owens
uso01 -at- unidata -dot- com