Edge.org
To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.
Published on Edge.org (https://www.edge.org)

Home >

2004 : WHAT'S YOUR LAW? [1]

In the News [ 4 ] [2]
  |  
Contributors [ 163 ] [3]   |   View All Responses [ 163 ] [4]
[5]
John D. Barrow [5]
Cosmologist; Physicist; Professor of Mathematical Science, Director, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge; Author, The Book of Universes
Barrow's law

Barrow's first 'law'

Any Universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind able to understand it. 

Barrow's second 'law'

All difficult conjectures should be proved by reductio ad absurdum arguments. For if the proof is long and complicated enough you are bound to make a mistake somewhere and hence a contradiction will inevitably appear, and so the truth of the original conjecture is
established QED.

Return to Table of Contents [3]
  • John Brockman, Editor and Publisher
  • Russell Weinberger, Associate Publisher
  • Nina Stegeman, Associate Editor
 
  • Contact Info:[email protected]
  • In the News
  • Get Edge.org by email
 
Edge.org is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Copyright © 2019 By Edge Foundation, Inc All Rights Reserved.

 


Links:
[1] https://www.edge.org/annual-question/whats-your-law
[2] https://www.edge.org/inthenews/whats-your-law
[3] https://www.edge.org/contributors/whats-your-law
[4] https://www.edge.org/responses/whats-your-law
[5] https://www.edge.org/memberbio/john_d_barrow