Everything Not Forbidden Is Compulsory

Murray Gell-Mann won a Nobel Prize for his work on the interaction between the physical world's fundamental building blocks. These tiny particles can be combined to create different materials. What kind of combinations are possible? Gell-Mann quipped that "Everything not forbidden is compulsory." That quip is now known as the "Totalitarian Principle" of quantum mechanics. In simple terms, it means that in a fast-moving evolutionary environment, anything that is not explicitly prevented by the laws of physics (such as conservation of energy or charge) must ultimately occur. It may sound like Gell-Mann stated the obvious: What can happen will happen. Yet, most people operate on the assumption that only what is likely to happen will happen. The same is true for companies, governments, and other systems. After all, we are not tiny particles. Our bodies and minds and cities and companies and products are not constantly reshuffled to explore every possible combination. We do not live in t ... Read full article.