Betteridge's Law is named after Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, who wrote directly on the subject. Sturgeon's Law is named after Ted Sturgeon, a ficti

Betteridge's Law is named after Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, who wrote directly on the subject. Sturgeon's Law is named after Ted Sturgeon, a fiction writer, who actually basically coined the phrase originally (I think he did anyway). Michael Crichton, on the other hand, did not call his idea "Crichton's Law of Media Analysis". He deliberately gave it an obfuscatory name and attempted to associate it with a well regarded physicist to give the impression that the law was scientific in some way. It was a deliberate misdirection, done for effect. Because of the intrinsically duplicitous nature of the name "Gell-Mann Amnesia" I think its inappropriate to continue referring to the effect under that name. Call it Crichton's Law or whatever. Lets not repeat the original misdirection though. It is fundamentally dishonest and does a disservice to the legacy of Murray Gell-Mann.