Arthur Clark's Laws of Prediction & Shermer's Final Law

2bsirius video about:
Arthur C. Clarke formulated the following three "laws" of prediction:
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.
For Shermer:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=shermers-last-law
Full text of Shermers article:
http://www.michaelshermer.com/2002/01/shermers-last-law/

For background on Arthur C. Clarke:
http://www.technobohemia.com/techboblog/2010/2/5/clarkes-3-laws-of-prediction...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

Music "Wonders of Other Worlds: Ritual" by Kevin Macleod:
http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 2bsirius
• prediction
• arthur
• c.
• clarke
• michael
• shermer
• science
• religion

[HaleyMary]

interesting part of Shermer's last law: that an advanced extra terrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God. It reminds me of a book I read called "Gods of the New Millennium" by Alan F. Alford. In that book, the extra terrestrials were referred to as Gods as well. Makes me wonder do we label some beings or powers God, simply because we don't understand them?

[2bsirius]

@HaleyMary

Great comment!

Yes, exactly. God is most often a shorthand way of saying I don't understand this so I'm going to call it God and then I can give up thinking about it and "take it on faith"...

That leads nowhere.

[pangeaprogress]

wonderful thoughts!

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of the imagination."

John Dewey

[2bsirius]

@pangeaprogress

Thanks for taking this video as a response to yours...

Great quote btw.

[lexaling]

There is no magic. Shermer's Last Law is rife with suppositions, none of which matter.

Self-awareness is amazing, breath-taking, dismaying, inescapable.

Thanks

[yendor79]

So the last law could a fact or a perception...the following sentence seems to point to the latter which is more logical undistinguished by how one defines God.

[DonQuixotedeKaw]

@ballyboneman

Thank you for the heads up; I had actually considered finding it.

Yup, if I want to watch KR, I'll watch Bill & Ted. :D

[DonQuixotedeKaw]

@valhala56

"I guess once they give us unlimited energy, climate stability & Global Prosperity then the Idealogues will just shut up & stay in the Mosque and won't bother all there rest of us."

The funny thing, is that we have all of that right at hand. What we have to have is a global tyranny, forcing the goatherder faiths back into the caves, and practice the kindess forms of eugenics possible.

Will this happen?

No, and we are likely to become extinct because of it.

[ballyboneman]

Hmm can't say I agree with Shermer. I think he is stretching. Any super intelligent alien will still be constrained by the fundamental nature of material reality. Just as an aside; my favourite Arthur C Clarke quote is "My favourite definition of "Intellectual" is: "Someone who has been educated beyond his/her intelligence."

[ballyboneman]

Don't bother it's pish; although the depiction of Klaatu certainly suits the emotionally vacant, stiff-necked, wooden-top acting ability of Keanu Reeves.