Spukhafte Fernwirkung is a German phrase usually translated as Spooky Action At A Distance. Einstein used it to deride quantum entanglement. I can't remember where I first heard it - possibly in Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives - but it's been lodged in my head for a while.
Spooky Action At A Distance seems to express that really simple thing some technology can do to make something feel actually marvellous.
I first mentioned it on the blog in a discussion of golf and anti-aircraft fire and here with more talk about model railways but I've thinking about it even more recently - because of that RC Helicopter and the prospects for controlling the world like we control software.
It's that fact of actual physical distance, you're here, but you're connected to there, it can't help but feel magic. Wheras with loads of computer stuff, it all feels like it's in there, in that box. And it's just a bit less magic.
(I've just noticed Mr Webb's mentioned it too. Hurrah, it must be something then. Aside - It is excellent that he's blogging again, ideas come off him like sparks off a grinder. They singe and illuminate. This bodes well for the year.)