28 APR 2024 by ideonexus
Juridification is the Enemy of Legality
Modern governments, their hands increasingly tied by the robber-barons of global finance, often try to assert their power with their feet: by kicking out at another high-profile social problem, real or imagined, with another big policy initiative. Usually they come up with an accompanying raft of new laws. Legislative incontinence prevails. Not only is much of the legislation futile and even counterproductive from the start, we are also left with ever more relics of now-forgotten reforms. Bet...
1 1. The sheer breadth of laws renders ‘the law’ in its entirety, unknowable.
2. This vastness means that the law cannot be enforced evenly.
30 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Bottom-Up VS Top-Down Method for Finding Laws
Broadly speaking, to discover new regularities and laws we either follow top–down or the bottom–up approach (Fig. 1). In the top–down approach, the search begins with an external observation e.g., Newton’s laws of motion. The observer intuitively imagines a set of elements, a set of interactions and a mathematically expressible form to connect the two. Components are weaved into a mental map and experiments are planned to verify or nullify the model. If the experimental observations r... 1 
notes
notesFascinating explanation for why laws are harder and harder to find as we move into macroscopic sciences.
30 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Laws in Biology
In scientific jargon, law describes a true, absolute and unchanging relationship among interacting elements. Unlike in some fields, social customs and authorities do not determine the establishment of laws in science. Given that laws are derived from empirical observations, it implies that laws symbolize regularities endorsed by a majority opinion. People also use terms like rules and principles to describe consistent relationships expressed by mathematical equations e.g., Heisenberg uncertai... 1 notes
notesThere are fewer and fewer laws as we move from fundamental sciences, like mathematics and physics, to more complex and chaotic sciences, like chemistry, biology, and climatology.
26 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Sturgeon's Law
I repeat Sturgeon’s Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of SF is crud.[1] Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is... 1 notes
notes90% of everything is crap, be it film, literature, music, etc.
01 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Laws for Physicians in 1760 B.C.
If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife and cure it, or if he open a tumor (over the eye) with an operating knife, and saves the eye, he shall receive ten shekels in money. …
If a physician make a large incision with an operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with an operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off. ...
If a physician heal the broken bone or diseased soft part of a man, the patient shall pay the physician five shekels in money. 1 notes
notesEarliest known laws.
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
The Elegance of Scientific Equations
Perhaps we see equations as simple because they are easily expressed in terms of mathematical notation already invented at an earlier stage of development of the science, and thus what appears to us as elegance of description really reflects the interconnectedness of Nature's laws at different levels. 1 notes
notes...may merely reflect the interconnectedness of nature.
09 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
No Need for Erroneous Assumptions in Science
The laws of nature, as we understand them, are the foundation of our knowledge in natural things. So much as we know of them has been developed by the successive energies of the highest intellects, exerted through many ages. After a most rigid and scrutinizing examination upon principle and trial, a definite expression has been given to them; they have become, as it were, our belief or trust. From day to day we still examine and test our expressions of them. We have no interest in their reten... 1 notes
notesAnd disproving an established law would be a great discovery for a scientist.
28 APR 2012 by ideonexus
In the Beginning According to Einstein
In the beginning (if there was such a thing), God created Newton’s laws of motion together with the necessary masses and forces. This is all; everything beyond this follows from the development of appropriate mathematical methods by means of deduction. 1 notes
notesThere was Newton's laws, from which all else naturally followed.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Pollyanna VS Sod's Law
It's easy to see that predators (animals that kill and then eat other animals) are working for the downfall of their prey. But it's also true that prey are working for the downfall of their .fedators. They work hard to escape bei and it they all succeeded the predators would starve to death. The same thing holds between parasites and their hosts. It also holds between members of the same species, all of whom are actually or potentially competing with on another. If the living is easy, natural... 1 notes
notesEvolution favors the paranoid mind.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Law is King in America
But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolu... 1 notes
notesAnd the crown is demolished and scattered among the people.
