克拉克基本定律(英语:Clarke's three laws)是英国著名科幻作家亚瑟·查理斯·克拉克积累有关科学文化方面的经验提出的。[1]
- 定律一:如果一个年高德劭的杰出科学家说,某件事情是可能的,那他几乎就是正确的;但如果他说,某件事情是不可能的,那他很可能是错误的;
- 定律二:要发现某件事情是否可能的界限,唯一的途径是跨越这个界限,从可能跑到不可能中去;
- 定律三:在任何一项足够先进的技术和魔法之间,我们无法做出区分。
1917-2008., Clarke, Arthur C. (Arthur Charles),. Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination. Profiles of the future : an inquiry into the limits of the possible Rev. ed. New York: Popular Library. 1977, ©1973. ISBN 0445040610. OCLC 4368176. When, however, the lay public rallies round an idea that is denounced by distinguished but elderly scientists and supports that idea with great fervor and emotion -- the distinguished but elderly scientists are then, after all, probably right. [...] But the only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. [...] The French edition of this book rather surprised me by calling this Clarke's Second Law. I accept the label, and have also formulated a Third: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. As three laws were good enough for Newton, I have modestly decided to stop there.