http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke’s_three_laws

1: 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.
2: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

True, as far as I’ve experienced. “What does this register bit do?” / “Uh, I’ll have to look at the Verilog for it…”

[I must have read the book 2001 twenty times when I was young. Clarke’s later works weren’t as compelling, and I kind of wish they’d left Rama alone, but he’ll be remembered for a long, long time.]