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CLARKE’S THREE LAWS OF PREDICTION

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NASA's own time machine

NASA’s own time machine

Formulated by the British author Arthur C. Clarke, these three laws — especially the last one — are accepted as science fiction “fact.”

Clarke’s three laws are so ubiquitous in the literature, they are (with Asimov’s laws of robotry), the basis of many stories by a wide spectrum of authors in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

For your enlightenment:

  1. 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.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Murphy’s Corollary to Clarke’s Law: Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

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Categories: Literature, Quotation, Sayings and Platitudes, Sci Fi - Fantasy - Time Travel, Supernatural, Technology

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3 replies

  1. evilsquirrel13
    11/02/2014 • 09:19

    There may be something to that Heinlein maxim you like to quote. I have a very low opinion of smartphones, and sure enough, if you put one in my hands, it will go haywire and not work properly for me. Maybe if I try harder, I can wish it out to the cornfield! 🙂

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  2. ashokbhatia
    11/01/2014 • 03:40

    Allow me to propose this one: If something impossible is perceived to be a magic in common perception, it would indeed be seen as a magic when it happens.

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