Paradox Time!

[Legendary Nova]

I decided to blow your minds today! All of these paradoxes are from a YouTube video I watched a while ago, but can't remember which one.


1. A ship is built from 1000 planks of wood. At the end of each day, you take off one plank of wood, put it in storage, and replace it with a new one. Therefore, after 1000 days, all of the old planks would have been replaced. If you then built another identical ship out of the stored planks, which one is the original ship?

2. If gods do have unlimited power, would they be able to make a rock so heavy that even they could not lift it? This paradox is fun because no matter which way you look at it, they end up not having unlimited power, but unlimited power is pretty much the meaning of god...

3. Really common one: If you travelled back in time and stopped your father from having you, the resulting scenario is fun to think about. You would no longer exist, which in turn would let your father have you, but then you would go back and stop him, removing you, letting him have you, letting you stop him, removing you, etc.

4. If you observe any instant of time, there is no motion. In the very next instant, there is also no motion. If you continue down the line of instants using the same logic, then motion does not exist at all. But it does, doesn't it?

5. This statement is false. (http://www.portal2sounds.com/1245#q%3Dthis%2520sentenc e%2520is%2520false) Probably the most commonly known paradox. Had to put it in!

6. Really close to number 4. If you have a heap of sand, it is a heap. Nah! You sure? If you take one grain of sand, it is still a heap. Using this logic while taking one grain every time, means that either a heap can consist of one grain of sand, or that a heap does not exist at all.


You can see how much attention and thought you are giving these, because if you can come to a conclusion about any of these, you aren't thinking about the whole scenario.


Hope your mind is still in one piece after those!

[Mythonian]

Eh, some one these aren't technically paradoxes, but here are my takes:


1. A ship is built from 1000 planks of wood. At the end of each day, you take off one plank of wood, put it in storage, and replace it with a new one. Therefore, after 1000 days, all of the old planks would have been replaced. If you then built another identical ship out of the stored planks, which one is the original ship?
This is more of a semantics problem based on how you define the word "original." For instance, the very first time you take a plank off of it, it is now a different ship and the "original" doesn't exist anymore whatsoever.


2. If gods do have unlimited power, would they be able to make a rock so heavy that even they could not lift it? This paradox is fun because no matter which way you look at it, they end up not having unlimited power, but unlimited power is pretty much the meaning of god...
This is more of a misunderstanding of "unlimited" power, or omnipotence. The answer to the question is "yes" actually, a god as such could create it without any issues. However, if he ever decided he wanted it moved, it would then move. The concept of something which would take infinite force to move yet is still not supposed to move when infinite force is applied to it is a logical inconsistency as well, which kind of invalidates the question overall.


3. Really common one: If you travelled back in time and stopped your father from having you, the resulting scenario is fun to think about. You would no longer exist, which in turn would let your father have you, but then you would go back and stop him, removing you, letting him have you, letting you stop him, removing you, etc.
Depends on if you subscribe to a Multiverse theory or not, because if so, traveling back in time could in essence be taking you to a separate universe instead, where it wouldn't have any affect on you personally but would affect the rest of that universe.

Also, whether time is something that could be traveled through is up for debate, based on thermodynamics and such.


4. If you observe any instant of time, there is no motion. In the very next instant, there is also no motion. If you continue down the line of instants using the same logic, then motion does not exist at all. But it does, doesn't it?
Motion, or at least velocity, is defined as the change of position over a change in time, so therefore motion doesn't need to exist in an instantaneous state whatsoever for it to exist. The changes between each of those instants of time is what proves that motion does in fact exist.


5.This statement is false. (http://www.portal2sounds.com/1245#q%3Dthis%2520sentenc e%2520is%2520false) Probably the most commonly known paradox. Had to put it in!
Just looked this up and there are several possible solutions to it, based on interpretation and semantics.


6. Really close to number 4. If you have a heap of sand, it is a heap. Nah! You sure? If you take one grain of sand, it is still a heap. Using this logic while taking one grain every time, means that either a heap can consist of one grain of sand, or that a heap does not exist at all.
How do you define "heap?" If you define the word to be "more than 10,000 grains of sand" then it works just fine. Just a semantics problem.


You can see how much attention and thought you are giving these, because if you can come to a conclusion about any of these, you aren't thinking about the whole scenario.Or the problems aren't thinking about the whole scenerio, or they aren't considering reality, which is usually the case actually.

[Spartanbh]

This thread doesnt even need to continue after the 2nd post lol

[Legendary Nova]

This thread doesnt even need to continue after the 2nd post lol

*cough*Myth's a killjoy*cough*

[Mythonian]

*cough*Myth's a killjoy*cough*

xD Don't ask a question if you don't want an answer. lol

:assimilate:

[Legendary Nova]

I'm just going to leave it at "AIs can't handle paradoxes and therefore need to destroy them for their precious closure!"

[fearfulpenguin]

This thread doesnt even need to continue after the 2nd post lol

Game. Set. and Match :D

[Jam Cliché]

I came to this thread knowing Myth had already done his work.

[Graycochea]

Someone just got taken to school. That was utterly devastating.

[Legendary Nova]

I came to this thread knowing Myth had already done his work.


Someone just got taken to school. That was utterly devastating.

Probably should have seen that coming.

[Legendary Nova]

Do you think there's a paradox out there that Myth can't explain? I'm going to look around for some more for him to ruin!

What if Pinocchio said "My nose will grow"?

[Spattan177]

Game. Set. and Match :D

Myth: More than Nova---Nova: three or four.

[NervyDestroyer]

LOL Myth just broke down every statement

[Mythonian]

What if Pinocchio said "My nose will grow"?

This is mainly just another version of the "this sentence is false" paradox, based on the concept that if Pinocchio lies, his nose grows.

If after saying that, his nose grows, then his statement was true but his nose still grew.
Or, after saying that, his nose does not grow, he gets away with a lie without his nose growing.

In both cases, the conclusions negate the premise. This is part of the reason it's a paradox, but also the key to the solution. Here's two possibilities:

1. The premise was false. The concept that Pinnochio's nose would ever grow at all was a joke to troll everyone.
2. Can be turned into a semantics issue with the definition of lying. If we say that lying is stating a factual untruth with the clear intention to deceive, than his statement wouldn't be considered a lie and his nose would not grow. This is because his statement was a prediction about the future, and you can't lie about an event that hasn't happened yet.

[fearfulpenguin]

Do you think there's a paradox out there that Myth can't explain?

That is like asking water not to be wet or to ask silko not to be well silko

[Legendary Nova]

After many heated thoughts and plenty of Googling while at school today, I have come to the conclusion that any "Paradox" can be solved by at least one form of reasoning or belief/theory. Therefore I am just going to stop trying! (:3)

[Mythonian]

After many heated thoughts and plenty of Googling while at school today, I have come to the conclusion that any "Paradox" can be solved by at least one form of reasoning or belief/theory. Therefore I am just going to stop trying! (:3)

Most of the time a paradox is under very unusual or extremely specific circumstances, and can be interpreted in different ways. Nothing I've actually said has been "solving" them, just been pointing out inconsistencies or ways to sort of avoid the question. For the most part, the best response to a paradox is coming up with an excuse to not answer, and suddenly everyone thinks you're right for some reason. ;)

[Barry Soap]

Most of the time a paradox is under very unusual or extremely specific circumstances, and can be interpreted in different ways. Nothing I've actually said has been "solving" them, just been pointing out inconsistencies or ways to sort of avoid the question. For the most part, the best response to a paradox is coming up with an excuse to not answer, and suddenly everyone thinks you're right for some reason. ;)

I don't think there is a right answer, usually it's self-contradictory or logically unacceptable, so you just take what you get :P :P