How a magic trick debunks the theory of mind

I have written before how theory of mind is bullshit. I really think the theory of theory of mind has been debunked significantly by Wendly Lawson in her book “the passionate mind” and I have written an article about this before about magic and theory of mind, but I really want to elaborate on it.

Earlier today at the coder dojo, I demonstrate a simple vanish of a 3D printed 20-sided die. Easy stuff, but what goes on behind the scenes?

I have to assess my angles, so she doesn’t she where the object ends up after I seemingly put it into my left hand, so I have to think about what she might see and how I curcumvent her line of sight. I have to predict her line of sight, before I even do a thing. During this assessment I can reposition myself, I can put the person in a different spot or use a different method.

I have to seemingly put the object in my other hand, which they have to believe in order for the illusion of a vanish going to work, so in order for this, I have to have my technique down so good, that it looks natural and it looks as if I really put the object in my other hand, for which I have to predict what to them might look as if someone puts an object in a different hand in a traditional relaxed manner.

Now the revelation, I have to assess if I need to do a complete vanish if I didn’t fool the person completely or can get away with a retention in my other hand, for it to be used later, in this I have to assess if my vanish really fooled them or not, I have to notice their reactions and make an assessment of what my future actions with the vanished object might be.

Then I have 2 things I can do, Do a complete vanish or make it appear somewhere else.

You see that behind a simple magic illusion like the vanish of a simple object comes a lot of me assessing a persons mind and how I would react to it.

For me, the psychology behind magic is the most fascinating because I get to experience and learn how simple techniques fool another humans mind to make it seem as if something magical has happened.

if you want to magically make a coffee appear on my desk, you can do that here:

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