Editing Clarke's three laws (section)

== Variants of the third law ==
The third law has inspired many [[snowclone]]s and other variations:
* {{anchor|Shermer}}Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.<ref name="Gooden2015"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Shermer |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Shermer |date=January 2002 |title=Shermer's Last Law |url=https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/shermers-last-law/ |url-access= |magazine=[[Scientific American]] |volume=286 |issue=1}}</ref> ([[Michael Shermer|Shermer]]'s last law)
* Any sufficiently advanced act of benevolence is indistinguishable from malevolence<ref>{{cite book | last1= Rubin | first1= Charles T. | author-link1= Charles T. Rubin | editor1-last= Chadwick | editor1-first= Ruth | editor2-last= Gordijn | editor2-first= Bert | publisher= Springer | title= Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity | date= 5 November 2008 | isbn= 978-904818005-9 | page= 149 | url= http://www.abolitionist.com/transhumanism/transhumanist.pdf | chapter= What is the Good of Transhumanism? | access-date= 17 October 2014 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141016064821/http://www.abolitionist.com/transhumanism/transhumanist.pdf | archive-date= 16 October 2014 | url-status= live}} Rubin is referring to an earlier work of his:<br />{{cite book| last1=Rubin | first1= Charles T. | author-link1= Charles T. Rubin | editor1-last= Kingsley | editor1-first=Stuart A. | editor1-link= Stuart Kingsley | editor2-last= Lemarchand | editor2-first= Guillermo A. | title=The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in the Optical Spectrum II: 31 January – 1 February 1996, San Jose, California, Band 2704 | date= 1996 | chapter=First contact: Copernican moment or nine day's wonder? | series= Proceedings of SPIE – the International Society for Optical Engineering | publisher= [[SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering]] | location= Bellingham, WA | isbn= 978-0-8194-2078-7 | pages= 161–84}}</ref> (referring to [[Artificial intelligence#Malevolent and friendly AI|artificial intelligence]])
* {{anchor|Grey}}Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice<ref name= "Gooden2015">{{cite book | title = Skyscrapers, Hemlines and the Eddie Murphy Rule: Life's Hidden Laws, Rules and Theories | first    = Philip | last = Gooden | date = 2015 | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing | isbn = 978-1-47291503-0 | page = 83}}</ref> (Grey's law)
*{{anchor|Sterling}}Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from magic.<ref>{{cite web | author=John Brockman | title= 2004 : WHAT'S YOUR LAW? | url= https://www.edge.org/responses/whats-your-law}}</ref> (Sterling's corollary to Clarke's law) This idea also underlies the setting of the novel [[Roadside Picnic]] by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, in which human ''stalkers'' try to navigate the location of an alien "visitation", trying to make sense of technically advanced items discarded by the aliens.
*{{anchor|Sterling}}Any sufficiently advanced garbage is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abdel-Salam |first1=Sami |last2=Brewster |first2=Mary |last3=Bratina |first3=Michele B. |last4=Bradley |first4=Katie |last5=Perone |first5=Julie |date=2020-09-03 |title=Generation Rx: A Preliminary Study of College Students and Prescription Drug Abuse |url=https://doi.org/10.37576/abuse.2020.011 |journal=Abuse: An International Impact Journal |volume=1 |issue=2 |page=26 |doi=10.37576/abuse.2020.011 |issn=2633-8742}}</ref>