British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated three

adage A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...

s that are known as Clarke's three laws, of which the third law is the best known and most widely cited. They are part of his ideas in his extensive writings about the future.

The laws

The laws
are: # When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. # The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. # Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Origins

One account stated that Clarke's laws were developed after the editor of his works in French started numbering the author's assertions. All three laws appear in Clarke's essay "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination", first published in ''Profiles of the Future'' (1962); however, they were not all published at the same time. Clarke's first law was proposed in the 1962 edition of the essay, as "Clarke's Law" in ''Profiles of the Future''. The second law is offered as a simple observation in the same essay but its status as Clarke's second law was conferred by others. It was initially a derivative of the first law and formally became Clarke's second law where the author proposed the third law in the 1973 revision of ''Profiles of the Future'', which included an acknowledgement. It was also here that Clarke wrote about the third law in these words: "As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly decided to stop there". The third law is the best known and most widely cited. It was published in a 1968 letter to ''

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'' magazine and eventually added to the 1973 revision of the "Hazards of Prophecy" essay.

Variants of the third law

The third law has inspired many

snowclone A snowclone is a clichéd phrase in which one or more words can be substituted to express a similar idea in a different context, often to humorous or sarcastic effect. For example, the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's phrase "the mother of all bat ...

s and other variations: * Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God. ( Shermer's last law) * Any sufficiently advanced act of benevolence is indistinguishable from malevolence (referring to

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

) * Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice (Grey's law) *Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from magic. (Sterling's corollary to Clarke's law) This idea also underlies the setting of the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, in which human ''stalkers'' try to navigate the location of an alien "visitation", trying to make sense of technically advanced items discarded by the aliens. *Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.

Corollaries and follow-ups

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

's follow-up to Clarke's First Law:

"When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervour and emotion – the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right."

contrapositive In logic and mathematics, contraposition, or ''transposition'', refers to the inference of going from a Conditional sentence, conditional statement into its logically equivalent contrapositive, and an associated proof method known as . The contrap ...

of the third law is "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." (Gehm's corollary)

References

External links

The origins of the Three Laws

"What's Your Law?"
(lists some of the corollaries)

by

David Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and Literary criticism, critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science-fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'' and holds the all-time ...