Yes — I’ve come across Physics and Austerity: Law Without Law by John Archibald Wheeler, and related works. Here’s a summary of what it is, what Wheeler meant by “law without law,” and some of the commentary/criticism around it. If you like, I can also try to get hold of the original working paper and pull out key passages.

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What is Physics and Austerity: Law Without Law

• It is a working‐paper by John Archibald Wheeler from 1982, published by the Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Texas. WorldCat+3Google Books+3Open Library+3

• It consists of three lectures Wheeler gave in October 1981 (in Beijing, Hefei, and Shanghai). Open Library+1

• The working paper is about 87 pages long. Google Books+1

The title reflects two of Wheeler’s provocative ideas: austerity — minimalism in fundamental assumptions — and “law without law” — the idea that perhaps the deep structure of the universe may not be governed by fixed, immutable laws in the traditional sense, but might emerge from more primitive or general features (e.g. information, choice, observation, or regularity without law‐like prescriptions). Science Museum Group Collection+3Amazon Web Services, Inc.+3Open Library+3

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What “Law Without Law” Means (in Wheeler’s Usage)

Wheeler’s “law without law” is a philosophical and conceptual stance. Some of its salient features:

1. Regularity or principle rather than detailed laws: The idea is that rather than having fundamental dynamical laws everywhere, physics might be underpinned by more general regulating principles or patterns. These might be statistical, informational, epistemic, or conceptual. (In Physics and Austerity, he explores this in lectures.) ResearchGate+3Open Library+3Google Books+3

2. Emergence from “almost nothing”: Wheeler speculates that a lot of what we observe — laws of physics, structure, even spacetime — might emerge from processes that are more lawless, more minimal, more about information, observation, choice. Sometimes Wheeler emphasizes observer‐participation (“It from Bit” is his broader slogan). Amazon Web Services, Inc.+2Science Museum Group Collection+2

3. Austerity: This refers to minimal assumptions or resources: few foundational postulates, letting regularity, principle, constraints or large‐scale / statistical behavior do the heavy lifting. The idea is that the simpler and more sparing the assumptions, the more powerful the explanatory reach — provided one can derive the structure we see. Amazon Web Services, Inc.+1

4. Role of observer, information, “it from bit”: Wheeler is famous for saying things like “all things physical are information‐theoretic in origin” (“it from bit”). The observer plays a more participatory role in bringing phenomena into being. Some of his rhetoric is speculative, but it’s aimed at rethinking the foundations of physics. ResearchGate+2Amazon Web Services, Inc.+2

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Reception, Criticism, and Formal Treatments

Since Wheeler’s lectures, others have discussed, extended, and criticized the “law without law” idea. Some of the relevant commentary:

• “Law Without Law or ‘Just’ Limit Theorems? Some Reflections about a Proposal of Wheeler’s by Sergio Caprara & Angelo Vulpiani (2018). In that paper, the authors examine Wheeler’s idea, looking particularly at statistical physics examples Wheeler invoked (e.g. Boltzmann‐Gibbs distribution, universality in critical phenomena, etc.), and argue that many of the things Wheeler attributes to minimal regularity principles actually require nontrivial mathematical/theoretical machinery (ergodicity, limit theorems, etc.). They caution that the apparent simplicity is misleading. ar5iv+1

• David Deutsch, “On Wheeler’s notion of ‘law without law’ in physics” (1986). Deutsch offers philosophical critique, asking whether the regulating principles are analytic or synthetic, whether they can truly dispense with law, etc. PhilPapers

• Others pick up the “law without law” idea in relation to quantum mechanics, cosmology, information theory, foundations of physics more generally. Some treat it as inspiring speculation; others focus on operationalizing the idea (i.e. what precise constraints, information theoretic or statistical principles, would suffice).

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If you like, I can try to locate a scan or PDF of Physics and Austerity to pull out some of the more provocative or technical passages. Would you prefer I do that?