A Corollary

by Peter Saint-Andre

2004-05-06

Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law of Technology states:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As I realized at the Liberty Fund colloquium I attended in Tucson last weekend, I think there is a corollary:

Any sufficiently advanced society is indistinguishable from magic.

The explanation shall have to wait for when I have more bandwidth. One clue: the mechanisms of society (law, money, etc.) are, in essence, simply forms of technology.


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