John Brockman poses this year’s question to the luminaries of The Edge community: What’s your law?:

“There is some bit of wisdom, some rule of nature, some law-like pattern, either grand or small, that you’ve noticed in the universe that might as well be named after you. Gordon Moore has one; Johannes Kepler and Michael Faraday, too. So does Murphy.

Since you are so bright, you probably have at least two you can articulate. Send me two laws based on your empirical work and observations you would not mind having tagged with your name. Stick to science and to those scientific areas where you have expertise. Avoid flippancy. Remember, your name will be attached to your law.”

164 respondents to date. Unfortunately, Brockman exhorted his contributors not to be flippant in formulating their laws. This largely excluded the ironic and cynical and with that, IMHO, an important segment of observations about how the universe works.

Nicholas Humphrey

Humphrey’s Law of the Efficacy of Prayer:

In a dangerous world there will always be more people around whose prayers for their own safety have been answered than those whose prayers have not.

[Think about it.]