Inviting the Random

The point of the law, the rule,
Is always the prediction.
Laws and rules are invented

To try to keep behaviors
Predictable—laws and rules
Are inferred from happenings

In hopes of being able
To make them predictable.
The former obtain in games,

The latter outside all games,
But there are games that pretend
The better to simulate

The happenings outside games—
Call them thought experiments—
And they, too, aim to predict,

By inventing rules in this case
To see what will happen then,
To check the inferences

About outside happenings
And so improve predictions.
The point of the laws, the rules,

Is always the predictions.
Outlaws are terrifying
For inviting the random.