Constantios,
I understand you were drawing a web of connections, but they tended to obscure the central focus somewhat. I think the existence of this contest and its question is a small breach in the wall of status quo physics, or should I say, static physics, since I'm on Heraclitus' side of the issue. So I'm trying to make sure there is as much pressure being applied as possible.
I think that the search for the Higgs proving to be a climb up a lonely mountain and not a stairway to heaven of ever more exotic particles, will prove to be the apogee of the current model, because future generations of theoretical physicists have no options to work on, other than examining the many loose ends left patched over, or unanswered in the present situation.
There are a few truly preposterous entries in this contest, by well respected professionals, which I will leave un-named, that make claims which would make multiworlds and inflation seem almost reasonable. If they think future physicists will follow them further down that path, they would seem to have little knowledge of the more introspective and less sheep like qualities of human nature.
As for truism, vs. laws, I'm more and more of the opinion that it is all truisms and there is no platonic realm of universal law. If we have no matter, energy, shape, form, structure, then there are also no defining principles. If we start with nothing, then nothing necessarily has no boundaries or action. Therefore nothing would seem to be infinite and inertial. It would seem nothing is empty space. Then we add action, which would mean the need for opposites, since one defines the other. Then we get multiplicity and interaction. Each layer of emergence creates the properties that define it. So what do the Platoists look at, when they seek those universal laws? Basic concepts and shapes; points, lines, planes, volume, triangles, circles, causality, reactiveness, etc. Basically they point to the initial levels of emergence and their properties. Then they do away with the nothing of space and call it an ether. Now they are trying to do away with the physical and say it is all just a platonic realm of math and information.
Just thinking out loud. Good to see you and keep hammering away.