Murphy's Law & Murphy's Antithesis

By Jerry Cates

When I served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960's, Murphy's Law, though at the time less than 15 years old, was already well known. The airmen at the 4047th Strategic Bomb Wing referred to Murphy's dictum whenever anything went haywire. Later, in Vietnam, the same process was carried out. The most popular form of Murphy's Law read "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong; at the worst possible time."

Other renditions of this law were created to fit the situation. According to historical sources, the original wording was either "If anything can go wrong, it will" or "If there's any way they can do it wrong, they will", but other, slightly different versions also exist. It is said that Capt. Murphy himself was unable to recite "the law" verbatim when interviewed years later, giving fitting proof, perhaps, that Murphy's Law is (as one might expect) a great example of of its essential veracity. Regardless of the wording used, every version remains faithful to a simple, basic theme, and each is, in general, terse, pithy, and true.

When I first put together this website (www.bugsinthenews.com), the title "Bugs In The News" was chosen knowing two meanings for the word "bug" are in use. First was the natural link to insects, but "bug" also refers to defects and imperfections. In our man-made world "bug" is applied to any glitch, like sludge in lubricating oil, or a tiny part whose failure can stop a huge machine. Murphy's Law works the same way in nature. Like the tangles and plaques clogging the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Or the juggling of base pairs in a DNA sequence that cause an organism to malfunction or die. 

Murphy's Law is valuable because of the way it makes us think out of the box and prepare for disaster in advance. But its obverse, "Murphy's Antithesis", is also beneficial. Murphy's Law springs from essential pessimism, but Murphy's Antithesis is inherently optimistic. It says "Whatever can go well, will go well, at the best possible time."

 Together, these systems of laws are the Yin & Yang of nature. They describe truths at each end of the spectrum, yet they complement, attract and nourish each another. Murphy's Law says there are poisonous snakes and spiders in the world; Murphy's Antithesis rejoins that snakes keep rodents in check. And spiders feed on insects and provide food for songbirds. 

Murphy's Antithesis predicts that brain cells can regenerate, and adult stem cells can reproduce any organ in the body coded to your own genome. It predicts a dynamic that DNA sequencing errors will produce as many favorable mutations as unfavorable ones. Next: How to Use Murphy's Antithesis.

Bugsinthenews ... Murphy's Law & Variants Thereof ... The History of Murphy's Law