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Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. They 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 == Clarke's First Law was proposed by Clarke in the essay "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination", in ''Profiles of the Future'' (1962).〔"'Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination'" in the collection ''Profiles of the Future: An Enquiry into the Limits of the Possible'' (1962, rev. 1973), pp. 14, 21, 36.〕 The second law is offered as a simple observation in the same essay. Its status as Clarke's Second Law was conferred by others. In a 1973 revision of ''Profiles of the Future'', Clarke acknowledged the Second Law and proposed the Third. "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, and appears in Clarke's 1973 revision of "Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination". It echoes a statement in a 1942 story by Leigh Brackett: "Witchcraft to the ignorant, ... simple science to the learned".〔"The Sorcerer of Rhiannon", ''Astounding'' February 1942, p. 39.〕 An earlier example of this sentiment may be found in Wild Talents (1932) by the author Charles Fort, where he makes the statement: "...a performance that may some day be considered understandable, but that, in these primitive times, so transcends what is said to be the known that it is what I mean by magic." Even earlier, Rider Haggard's novel She (1886) expresses the sentiment multiple times, such as in chapter 17: "Fear not, my Holly, I shall use no magic. Have I not told thee that there is no such thing as magic, though there is such a thing as understanding and applying the forces which are in Nature?" A fourth law has been added to the canon, despite Clarke's declared intention of not going one better than Newton. Geoff Holder quotes: "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert" in his book ''101 Things to Do with a Stone Circle'' (The History Press, 2009), and offers as his source Clarke's ''Profiles of the Future'' (new edition, 1999). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clarke's three laws」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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