⚖️ Jurisprudence

Physical Law is a tower made of hows, and was built from the top down, through the centuries by careful measurements and painstaking calculations. It grants almost magical powers of prediction, explaining how this thing happens and that. It’s what all of our technology is built on, and is arguably our finest creation. To the untrained eye these hows look like whys. Many believe that if build deep enough we will one day reach the foundations. This idea itself rests on future discoveries; it’s without grounds.

Long ago, aliens discovered The Law of Quenching. This law states that living humans will consume water several times a day, and will never go longer than 4 days without a drink. After centuries of abductee experiments, the Theory of Quenching earned its place as a fundamental law of human motion, explaining why humans gasp and clamour for water. Thirst, it seems, is an alien concept.

People in another timeline discovered Orb’s Laws. These state that firstly, all planets must orbit their sun, and secondly that all moons must orbit their planets. Things that passed through or were flung out of our solar system were not planets, and not just because they didn’t stick around for long enough to be seen, but because that would violate Orb’s first law. After next Tuesday’s event, they say, the will end and the moon starts its new orbit around the sun. And we can be sure that whoever evolves next will learn Orb’s Truths, and know that Luna is a planet.

Our laws of physics are not the boss of the universe, they’re the voice of apes scrawled on paper. The sounds we use to describe things are not the things themselves, how things seem to unfold are not why things happen. These are an us thing, not an it thing. Whatever it is, is something else.