Once upon a time, in this here tube, or some such like it, I would occasionally have speaks, with a fellow a commercial airline pilot. And he would try to sell me on the wonder of planes. But, I was not buying. It was and is my position that all the planes, they should be grounded. At once. And. Forevermore. For, if humans, they want to fly, they should do so—my view—without machines. Otherwise, they have no business, none whatsoever, being up there.

But, you don’t understand, the pilot, he would say. It’s really magic, flying.

Of course it is, I’d say. But that is the province of the wonder of birds. And you just can’t have magic, in machines. To machines, magic, it is allergic. That, is just, a Law.

“What about a heart defibrillator?” one day this guy at me snapped. “Someday you might think that machine, pretty fucking magic.”

Yeah, well, okay, I admitted. Always, there are exceptions. And these. Just. Proving. The rule.