The first two are:
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.
Arthur C. Clarke, the famed sci-fi author who penned these laws, is probably best known for co-authoring the screenplay to 2001: A Space Odyssee
The first law has always pissed me off: why are you wasting that elderly scientist’s time when you already know in advance what answer you want to hear and will only accept that response as being true?
It sounds more like he’s pointing out a literary trope to me.
I never actually read it as a dig at “elderly” scientists but I think you’re right haha
Tbf I think it’s supposed to be understood more conceptually as seeing how many things we take for granted as being outside the realms of possibility have just not yet been tackled the right way.