[RightWhale]

No question that life in itself needs to grow, which amounts to cell division. But on the other, the limited number of physical laws, it seems that the number of laws is limited by our imagination. We create the laws, matter does whatever it does and we see what we can see. There could be an infinity of laws awaiting our discovery or invention of them.

[betty boop]

There could be an infinity of laws awaiting our discovery or invention of them.

But if there are potentially an infinity of laws, RW -- then how would that be logically any different than a state of perfect randomness -- putting it crudely, an infinity of laws would all be "vying with each other to express themselves" (so to speak)? On the other hand, if there were an infinity of universes, this might be possible -- but how would we be able to demonstrate the existence of an infinity of universes in the first place?

My intuition is that there has to be some practical limit to the number of laws that apply to a given universe in order for that universe to be "what it is" and not some other universe. I'm sure I'm stating the matter crudely -- does it make any sense?

BTW, I really liked your qualification: discovery or invention. Personally, I incline to the former view.