Regarding the Goldberg/Feingold debate at Tech90s, Simon Biggs wrote:

and Ken Feingold will know this because he was there when I said it
(Helsinki, 1992).

For me one of the most alluring and powerful aspects of technology is
that it can create what appears to be magic. Magic is a wonderful
thing…but it only works if people cannot see how it is done. I can
understand the aesthetic of the loose wire, but fear that this will lead
to a fetishising of the machine, whereas what we should be fetishising
is the human. Humans love magic, the mysterious, the inexpicable and,
ultimately, the transcendental. This is what makes us feel like humans,
instead of monkeys or machines.

My feeling is that this is one of the most important debates in new
media art, but it is rarely engaged. That is; the appearance of
technology in art that uses technology.

Robbin Murphy replied:

I wrote this last December: It seems to apply:

MAGIC is big business these days and David Copperfield is the Bill Gates
of sorcerers. When our friend the mystery writer Carol O'Connell invited
us to preview the magician's new Broadway show, "Dreams and Nightmares,"
we put down our new paperback version of "The Road Ahead 96" and went
along to see some real trickery in action.

We admit we're gullible. Even if we hadn't had a knowledgeable guide to
clue us into the workings of the technology we would have been satisfied
to believe Copperfield really did saw himself in half. Knowing how a
trick is done is like using DOS – some people always have to know the
code, not us. What's amazing is the window of belief a good magician is
able to create, especially in a crowd of suspicion-prone New Yorkers.

Magic is nonsense that seems to makes sense, at least for the time
you're part of a captive audience. The nightmare begins when you realize
you can never leave.

After the show we wandered around Times Square and watched workmen
hoisting a sign onto the facade of the new Disney store on 42nd Street.
As Mickey and his friends took their places above where less acceptable
(but more human) characters once stood the air abruptly turned frigid
and we realized we weren't protected from the oncoming cold. We hailed a
cab and sped off for warmer climates.