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- Feb 28, 2010
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A recent post on the eGO Facebook page got me thinking...How many possible never-ending paradoxes may there be out there?
The original example used was "I always lie." The issue with said statement occurs when you think about it: if I always lie and admit it, I'm telling the truth; if I sometimes lie and say I always do, I never always did in the first place.
To put it simply, that blew my mind. With the goal of discovering more in mind, I embarked on a hunt. While some simply repeat into oblivion or alter to the point of impossible, other paradoxes simply are generated as arguments for/against something that never prove a point.
So far:
1) If a hipster likes the things that aren't really trending but being a hipster becomes cool, what does that make the hipster?
2) Battlefield vs. Call of Duty: Personally, I like both games, and each of them pertains to a specific audience. However, many players will disagree, and this statement has spiraled into troll versus troll countless time.
3) Portal, and its emphasis on future civilization: For those of you that have either played the original cult hit by Valve or the sequel, you'll understand. Each portal opens a rift through which the user is transported, but is the user really transported? As discussed on the TV Show The Big Bang Theory, such a rift would technically disassemble one in a location and reassemble an exact clone with the same memories and experiences in another. Thus, no difference could be drawn, and the user would technically be the same, but food for thought.
4) Alternate realities within alternate realities: Take Inception. During the movie (OMG, plot giveaway), the characters exist on multiple levels of sleep/consciousness, and can interact within these subrealities. As you immerse yourself into the world of illusion, time slows for your body in the true world (or is it?), and this allows for speedy accomplishment of difficult tasks in short increments of time. How do you know what is truly real, though?
5) Some of you may have stumbled upon the "Grandfather Theory/Paradox" before. Simply, it states that one may not reverse time and murder their own grandfather before he met their grandmother, as in doing so their mother/father would cease to exist and they would never have been born. Oftentimes, hits such as Doctor Who or Back to the Future play on these ideas, and usually with horrific consequences. For example, in Doctor Who: Father's Day (S1:E8), Rose attempts to save her father from a hit and run accident. After two tries (yes, three copies of the Doctor and Rose were present at one time, but were forced to avoid each other for fear of insanity in the past carrying over to the present condition), she has one remaining, and finally saves her father. Unfortunately, this having altered the future in thousands of miniscule twists, unearthly monsters begin to invade the world and target the chapel which hides the Doctor and Rose's family. Eventually, Rose's father sacrifices his life to end the relentless attack, and thus proves the theory works in reverse, as well. In Back to the Future Part 3, Marty McFly is left a buried note and DeLorean by the Doc stuck in the past, and combines efforts with the 1955 Doc to save his future self who is stuck in the past. Unbeknownst to him, there are men after the Doc stuck in 1885; if he is killed, the DeLorean will never have been invented and Marty will have no way home to 1985. Eventually, they return home having caused other, minor paradoxes and conflicts. Essentially, this also means that if I were to later choose to build a time transportation device and desired to rescue my dog that had died five years prior, I'd have to avoid my past self, save my puppy, and hope that doesn't change the path of my past self to have built the machine in the first place.
MIND-BLOWING, RIGHT? MY ENTIRE BRAIN IMPLODED
Do you have some to share? Feel free to go right ahead!
The original example used was "I always lie." The issue with said statement occurs when you think about it: if I always lie and admit it, I'm telling the truth; if I sometimes lie and say I always do, I never always did in the first place.
To put it simply, that blew my mind. With the goal of discovering more in mind, I embarked on a hunt. While some simply repeat into oblivion or alter to the point of impossible, other paradoxes simply are generated as arguments for/against something that never prove a point.
So far:
1) If a hipster likes the things that aren't really trending but being a hipster becomes cool, what does that make the hipster?
2) Battlefield vs. Call of Duty: Personally, I like both games, and each of them pertains to a specific audience. However, many players will disagree, and this statement has spiraled into troll versus troll countless time.
3) Portal, and its emphasis on future civilization: For those of you that have either played the original cult hit by Valve or the sequel, you'll understand. Each portal opens a rift through which the user is transported, but is the user really transported? As discussed on the TV Show The Big Bang Theory, such a rift would technically disassemble one in a location and reassemble an exact clone with the same memories and experiences in another. Thus, no difference could be drawn, and the user would technically be the same, but food for thought.
4) Alternate realities within alternate realities: Take Inception. During the movie (OMG, plot giveaway), the characters exist on multiple levels of sleep/consciousness, and can interact within these subrealities. As you immerse yourself into the world of illusion, time slows for your body in the true world (or is it?), and this allows for speedy accomplishment of difficult tasks in short increments of time. How do you know what is truly real, though?
5) Some of you may have stumbled upon the "Grandfather Theory/Paradox" before. Simply, it states that one may not reverse time and murder their own grandfather before he met their grandmother, as in doing so their mother/father would cease to exist and they would never have been born. Oftentimes, hits such as Doctor Who or Back to the Future play on these ideas, and usually with horrific consequences. For example, in Doctor Who: Father's Day (S1:E8), Rose attempts to save her father from a hit and run accident. After two tries (yes, three copies of the Doctor and Rose were present at one time, but were forced to avoid each other for fear of insanity in the past carrying over to the present condition), she has one remaining, and finally saves her father. Unfortunately, this having altered the future in thousands of miniscule twists, unearthly monsters begin to invade the world and target the chapel which hides the Doctor and Rose's family. Eventually, Rose's father sacrifices his life to end the relentless attack, and thus proves the theory works in reverse, as well. In Back to the Future Part 3, Marty McFly is left a buried note and DeLorean by the Doc stuck in the past, and combines efforts with the 1955 Doc to save his future self who is stuck in the past. Unbeknownst to him, there are men after the Doc stuck in 1885; if he is killed, the DeLorean will never have been invented and Marty will have no way home to 1985. Eventually, they return home having caused other, minor paradoxes and conflicts. Essentially, this also means that if I were to later choose to build a time transportation device and desired to rescue my dog that had died five years prior, I'd have to avoid my past self, save my puppy, and hope that doesn't change the path of my past self to have built the machine in the first place.
MIND-BLOWING, RIGHT? MY ENTIRE BRAIN IMPLODED
Do you have some to share? Feel free to go right ahead!
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