This week’s post is heavily inspired by this discussion thread and the opinions generated by members of Only Ideas and some Facebook groups.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend shared an incredible Instagram video of a successful magician making a Rubik’s cube appear from an iPad screen.

The Rubiks cube trick was a camera trick; you could see the classic telltale signs of rotoscoping. I told this to my friend, and I think he felt let down.

“Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does.”

- Karl Germain

But camera tricks aren’t allowed; that’s cheating? That’s why we feel let down when magicians use camera tricks? Right?