Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:
- 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.
3. sounds deep and is often cited.
ReplyDelete1. is obvious and is true not only for dist. elderly... i.e. existence proofs are by nature easier than impossibility proofs.
2. is motivational mumbo-jumbo (sorry A.C. I still liked 2001 A.S.O.)