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3.5 Laws of the Universe — Violate them at Your own Risk
A law of nature is final. It is absolute. It is always true. Writers and public speakers are told to not use “always” and “never” because using them implies there is a lie in the statement (it’s also a good test-taking strategy for eliminating wrong answers) or the statement is an exaggeration. Yet, laws of nature are different. They are not theories. They make no exceptions. They are ruthlessly fair. It is as though they are written by God into the fabric of the universe. The critically-acclaimed series Fullmetal Alchemist opens with this quote to set the stage for an alternate universe with its own laws of Alchemy.
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy’s First Law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world’s one, and only truth.
Ironically, this fictional law of Alchemy is eerily similar to a law of Physics discovered by Isaac Newton. Although it is a law only within the context of the physical sciences, its applications extend well beyond — it rears its head and reminds humankind of its existence in strange and…
