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The Origin of Murphy's Law

Posted by Hemos on from the where-it-all-stems-from dept.

LauraW writes "HotAIR, the web site of the Annals of Improbable Research , is publishing a fascinating series on the Origin of Murphy's Law. It turns out there really was a Murphy, and the story of his law involves rocket sleds, Chuck Yeager, and Edwards Air Force Base. The article covers all these topics and more, and includes interviews with Yeager, the son of Murphy (really), and several surviving members of the project that inspired the law."

2 of 240 comments (clear)

  1. Evolution of Murphy's Law by heironymouscoward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Initially, it was "if the damn idiot can get it wrong, he will", which was an indictment of poor design assuming that the user was smart, when we all know that a smart design assumes the user is stoned and half-asleep on a muggy Monday morning.

    The victims of Murphy's Law then turned around and said "if the system can go wrong, it will", which was around the same period we invented the notion of "computer error".

    Finally, Murphy's Law made the leap to non-technological domains, "if something can break, it will, in the worst possible way".

    So Murphy's Law today delegates responsibility for our fuck-ups to the hostile hand of fate, whereas Murphy's original comment was all about our own responsibility for making systems that actually work.

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  2. Re:More elegant? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, no.
    Murphy was an Engineer. His original formulation "'if there is any way to do it wrong, he will", has some value in ergonomic design. Controls should be designed so as to eliminate chance accidents. For instance, in computers, most connectors are shaped, or keyed, so as to reduce the chances of someone plugging in wires the wrong way.

    Some accidents are avoidable. Some are not. The adage "Shit Happens", while perhaps emotionally comforting, may lead some to confuse an entirely avoidable situation with the truly unpredictable.