In my opinion, these are all great t0pics to ponder on. Thank you for posting this.
However, I think the question should just be "What is magic for?" instead of "Where is the old magic?", and the reason I'm beginning by saying this is because there have always been magic effects which are just flashy eye-candy and nothing else, in the past and today.
The problem with equating old magic to modern magic is also in the amount of knowledge and exposure to magic people have now-a-days. Sawing a woman in half, walking on water, all of these used to be miracles. Now, they aren't. Especially with the advent of technology, video editing and (again) knowledge of how TV productions work, people tend to be less surprised in general because they know that everything is to some extent, possible.
In fact, it's my guess that if I could go back to the 1500's and just show people what my smartphone can do, then I could gain legions of followers and start a new religion (or be burnt as a witch). Because that's mind-melting,
real magic to them. If I went back to 1950 and just told people what the internet is, they'd say it is real magic.
What is 'real magic' or 'worthy magic' or what value magic brings to the audience, is a function of time.
A coin vanishes, and fails to reappear - why should this be of value to a modern audience?
Practically speaking, this is a question which the magician has to answer while thinking about their patter or presentation. When I see an IMPOSSIBLE looking coin vanish on Instagram today, synced to music, I think, 'Oh, that's nice.'. When I see Garrett Thomas vanishing a coin, I remember it enough to reference it years later on a Theory XI forum post. I'll never forget it.
So it isn't the coin vanish that's of value. It's what value WE as magicians bring to it.
Also, 'value' is a pretty relative term. The flashy Instagram coin vanish does bring me value, just a different kind. I look at it and go 'Wow!'. Seeing the coin vanish impossibly right when the music beat drops, I'm entertained.
Seeing the sharpie pass through a deck even with zero context, I'm astonished.
Looking at magicians coming up with creative ways to vanish and produce the magic thumb lights, I am amused and I laugh.
All of this is valuable to me. Comparatively more short term? Yes. Are they replaceable with
any other post from any other art form that's entertaining, astonishing or funny? Yes. But they're still not worthless.
Just a different kind of worthy.
Sometime, I don't WANT a magic effect to communicate any message at all. I look at somebody performing an impossible effect with a storyline, a message, and I go "Stop already, it's just a card trick!". There are times when I can't bear watching mentalism performances no matter how amazing the performer genuinely is (my brain goes "Just read their mind ALREADY" or "you want me to believe that you have these godly powers, and all you did with it is
audition for AGT?"). I pause and realise that I'm reading book after book, post after post, thread after thread on how to make a coin vanishing magic trick look good! I feel so pretentious and also, stupid.
Then there are times when I
want something more. I want to look at magic the art form. I want to re-visit my childlike wonder. I want to listen to Asi Wind talk about invisible dice. I want to listen to Garrett Thomas talk about reality. I want to listen to David Copperfield talk about what love is. I want to read and re-read Strong Magic, Maximum Entertainment a million times.
I think that all magicians, to some extent, face this duality. All non-magicians too, in fact all human beings in my opinion, face the duality of wanting some 'light entertainment' sometimes or wanting some 'life-altering experience'.
Aiming for just the latter is therefore, not only unnecessarily making things too difficult for oneself but also limiting. I feel that the beautiful, actual life-changing magic should be the general goal. But if we end up hitting the eye-candy level instead, it's still worth it.
But yet again, we should pause from time to time and gain perspective on what we are spending hours, days and ultimately years of our life pursuing. Again, just my opinion.