Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weinersmith for January 13, 2016
January 12, 2016
January 14, 2016
Transcript:
Are you familiar with Zeno's paradox? No. I tried reading it but before I could get to the end, I had to get halfway to the end. And before I could get from there to the end, I had to read a half the remaining portion. Then half that and half that! How can I read it all if there are infinite points to reach first?! I see... Are you familiar with Plato's metaphor of the cave? Only the dim outlines.
Ida No almost 9 years ago
Man: "Descartes’ “I think…”"Woman: “I think not.”
seismic-2 Premium Member almost 9 years ago
I love a meta-conversation!
Stephen Gilberg almost 9 years ago
“Do you know about Heisenberg?” “Maybe.”
Coyoty Premium Member almost 9 years ago
“How about Schrödinger?”“Yes and no.”
Ida No almost 9 years ago
Not true. Schrodinger is saying that both states exist simultaneously. It’s not a question of not knowing the outcome, but that according to the math both outcomes are equally true and that you can’t predict one or the other until you make the observation. The cat is simultaneously alive and dead.
fredd13 almost 9 years ago
Doesn’t work; text isn’t infinitely sub-divisible. There are only a finite number of characters in any description of the paradox, so after a finite number of divisions you must inevitably end up with a single character (the first) to read. You can’t “half-read” that, so at that point Xeno ceases to apply. After which, by a similar argument, you must then read the next one. And so on, until you have completed the text (without so much as the aid of the mathematics of infinite series).