More often quoted as:
Anything that CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong.
And initially used to describe the progress of a technical (aerospace? engineering?) process as it spirals downward from brilliant plan to committee design to flawed execution.
A Law Of Nature You May Not Be Aware Of
- Thread starter Dr Adequate
- Start date
More often quoted as:
Anything that CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong.
And initially used to describe the progress of a technical (aerospace? engineering?) process as it spirals downward from brilliant plan to committee design to flawed execution.
Dustin Kesselberg
Illuminator
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2004
- Messages
- 4,669
Well,If something is happening....I can see how if it keeps happening forever,then whatever can go wrong with it will EVENTUALLY go wrong.But I don't see how this can be used in every day events.
I mean...I walk out the door and walk down the stairs of my house...I CAN fall,But I don't.
So this everything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong can not be applied to every day situations like this.Because Im not walking down stairs for evernity....Everything that CAN go wrong in this situation CAN go wrong...But not WILL go wrong.
But maybe in situations like...
If a car is driving down the road forever,Whatever CAN go wrong to it will EVENTUALLY go wrong one way or another if it keeps going forever,maybe in 10 years or maybe in 1,000,000 years. If whatever goes wrong is fixed and then it keeps going so that something else can go wrong.
I mean...I walk out the door and walk down the stairs of my house...I CAN fall,But I don't.
So this everything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong can not be applied to every day situations like this.Because Im not walking down stairs for evernity....Everything that CAN go wrong in this situation CAN go wrong...But not WILL go wrong.
But maybe in situations like...
If a car is driving down the road forever,Whatever CAN go wrong to it will EVENTUALLY go wrong one way or another if it keeps going forever,maybe in 10 years or maybe in 1,000,000 years. If whatever goes wrong is fixed and then it keeps going so that something else can go wrong.
DevilsAdvocate
Philosopher
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2004
- Messages
- 7,686
Very interesting post, Dr Adequate! Obviously "cause and effect" is fundamental to scientific knowledge. When regarded as a "Law", however, it appears to be mostly used in the context of the paranormal or at least theosophy.
To try it yourself, Google for: "cause and effect" "scientific". You should get a bunch of science-related sites that refer to scientific method, data analysis, etc.
Now Google for: "law of cause and effect" "scientific". You should get a bunch of sites related to religion and the paranormal.
If you Google for just "law of cause and effect" you should be hitting almost nothing but paranormal-related sites.
I added the word "scientific" to the search parameters because I hypothesized that it would cause the effect of finding sites that refer to "scientific method". It was, therefore, somewhat surprising that adding "law of" with the same parameters virtually eliminated scientific sites.
I believe, but do not know, that this is what Dr Adequate was demonstrating by this posting thread. That is, Dr Adequate believed that posting this thread would cause the effect of this community understanding that references to "cause and effect" as a "law" tend to indicate an attribute of non-scientific reasoning. I suspect that the effect was not fully realized. Perhaps Dr Adequate should undertake further study of the law of cause and effect, or possibly align his Qi with his chakras.
To try it yourself, Google for: "cause and effect" "scientific". You should get a bunch of science-related sites that refer to scientific method, data analysis, etc.
Now Google for: "law of cause and effect" "scientific". You should get a bunch of sites related to religion and the paranormal.
If you Google for just "law of cause and effect" you should be hitting almost nothing but paranormal-related sites.
I added the word "scientific" to the search parameters because I hypothesized that it would cause the effect of finding sites that refer to "scientific method". It was, therefore, somewhat surprising that adding "law of" with the same parameters virtually eliminated scientific sites.
I believe, but do not know, that this is what Dr Adequate was demonstrating by this posting thread. That is, Dr Adequate believed that posting this thread would cause the effect of this community understanding that references to "cause and effect" as a "law" tend to indicate an attribute of non-scientific reasoning. I suspect that the effect was not fully realized. Perhaps Dr Adequate should undertake further study of the law of cause and effect, or possibly align his Qi with his chakras.
