The generalised or "folk" version of Murphy' s Law, fully named "Finagle' s Law of Dynamic Negatives" and usually rendered "Anything that can go wrong, will". One variant favoured among hackers is "The perversity of the Universe tends toward a maximum". The label "Finagle' s Law" was popularised by SF author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners this "Belter" culture professed a religion and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy. [Jargon File] (1995-12-14)
