  In 1972, at a symposium celebrating the 70th birthday of Paul Dirac, John
Wheeler proclaimed that "the framework falls down for everything that one has
ever called a law of physics". Responsible for this "breakage [...] among the
laws of physics" was the general theory of relativity, more specifically its
prediction of massive stars gravitationally collapsing to "black holes", a term
Wheeler himself had made popular some years earlier. In our paper, we
investigate how Wheeler reached the conclusion that gravitational collapse
calls into question the lawfulness of physics and how, subsequently, he tried
to develop a new worldview, rethinking in his own way the lessons of quantum
mechanics as well as drawing inspiration from other disciplines, not least
biology.
