Clarke's three laws
E106937
Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Clarke's three laws canonical | 4 |
| Clarke’s First Law | 1 |
| Clarke’s Second Law | 1 |
| Clarke’s Third Law | 1 |
| First law of Clarke | 1 |
| Second law of Clarke | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T900807 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Clarke's three laws Context triple: [Arthur C. Clarke, knownFor, Clarke's three laws]
-
A.
I, Robot
I, Robot is a seminal science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that explores the ethical and logical implications of advanced robotics and the famous Three Laws of Robotics.
-
B.
Asimov's Chronology of the World
Asimov's Chronology of the World is a comprehensive historical reference book by Isaac Asimov that presents a chronological overview of world history from prehistoric times to the modern era.
-
C.
Die Welträthsel
Die Welträthsel is a late-19th-century philosophical and scientific work by Ernst Haeckel that attempts to explain the fundamental "riddles of the universe" through a monistic, evolutionary worldview.
-
D.
The Naked Sun
The Naked Sun is a science fiction mystery novel by Isaac Asimov featuring detective Elijah Baley investigating a murder on the sparsely populated, robot-dominated planet Solaria.
-
E.
The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel is a science fiction detective novel by Isaac Asimov that blends futuristic robotics with a classic murder mystery set in an overpopulated, enclosed megacity.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Clarke's three laws Target entity description: Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-
A.
I, Robot
I, Robot is a seminal science fiction short story collection by Isaac Asimov that explores the ethical and logical implications of advanced robotics and the famous Three Laws of Robotics.
-
B.
Asimov's Chronology of the World
Asimov's Chronology of the World is a comprehensive historical reference book by Isaac Asimov that presents a chronological overview of world history from prehistoric times to the modern era.
-
C.
Die Welträthsel
Die Welträthsel is a late-19th-century philosophical and scientific work by Ernst Haeckel that attempts to explain the fundamental "riddles of the universe" through a monistic, evolutionary worldview.
-
D.
The Naked Sun
The Naked Sun is a science fiction mystery novel by Isaac Asimov featuring detective Elijah Baley investigating a murder on the sparsely populated, robot-dominated planet Solaria.
-
E.
The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel is a science fiction detective novel by Isaac Asimov that blends futuristic robotics with a classic murder mystery set in an overpopulated, enclosed megacity.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
aphorism
ⓘ
aphorism ⓘ aphorism ⓘ philosophical principle ⓘ set of aphorisms ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Arthur C. Clarke's essays
ⓘ
speculative science ⓘ |
| author | Arthur C. Clarke ⓘ |
| bestKnownFor | Third law of Clarke ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| culturalImpact |
frequently cited in discussions of emerging technologies
ⓘ
referenced in science fiction literature ⓘ referenced in technology journalism ⓘ |
| field |
science and technology
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| hasNotableQuotation |
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
ⓘ
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. ⓘ When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Clarke's three laws
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
First law of Clarke
Clarke's three laws self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Second law of Clarke
Third law of Clarke ⓘ |
| influenced |
discussions of science fiction tropes
ⓘ
philosophy of technology ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Arthur C. Clarke ⓘ |
| partOf |
Clarke's three laws
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
Clarke's three laws self-linksurface differs ⓘ Clarke's three laws self-linksurface differs ⓘ |
| perspective |
emphasizes fallibility of expert predictions
ⓘ
encourages openness to seemingly impossible ideas ⓘ highlights gap between advanced technology and lay understanding ⓘ |
| statement |
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
ⓘ
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. ⓘ When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. ⓘ |
| topic |
limits of scientific knowledge
ⓘ
perception of technology ⓘ technological advancement ⓘ |
| usedIn |
popular science writing
ⓘ
science communication ⓘ technology commentary ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Clarke's three laws Description of subject: Clarke's three laws are a set of aphorisms about science and technology, most famously stating that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Clarke’s First Law
this entity surface form:
Clarke’s Second Law
this entity surface form:
Clarke’s Third Law
this entity surface form:
First law of Clarke
this entity surface form:
Second law of Clarke
subject surface form:
First law of Clarke
subject surface form:
Second law of Clarke
subject surface form:
Third law of Clarke