Das Paradox

[automatron]

A good one that'll blow your mind.
It's called the shrimp paradox, and it's known as one of the most baffling paradoxes ever invented. (and god help anyone who's ninja'ed me here)
"If this statement is not a shrimp, then it is a paradox"
It's a paradox because of the fact that it makes perfect sense, except paradoxes don't make perfect sense.

 

[bad rider]

For fun, I like to go into dictionaries lookup paradox, tip-ex out the definition and replace it with the word "paradox"

 

[bad rider]

There is no life in the universe (operating under the assumption that there are an infinite number of planets) There are an infinite number of planets in the universe, however we know that no all planet have life, therefore only a finite number of planets in the universe have life. to figure out the percentage of planets with life you need to divide a finite number by infinity. For simplicity sake I'm going to use 1 for the finite number and % to represent infinity. in order to solve 1/% you must take the limit of 1/x as x approaches infinity, as x gets large 1/x gets smaller (1/4 is smaller then 1/2). The limit of 1/x as x approaches infinity is 0 therefore there is no life in the universe and everyone you meet is just a figment of your imagination.
(From the Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy I just used calculus to prove it)

Fortunately the universe is finite.

Prove it

It started out as a point, and has expanded at a finite rate for 13.7 billion years. It cannot have grown to infinity in this time. Besides, even if it was infinite, you'd still be wrong, because infinity (the number of planets) minus any finite number (the number of known uninhabited planets) is still infinity (the number of potentially inhabited planets left).

Even if there are an infinite number of populated planets, the denominator is still a large (or faster growing) infinity and my math still works out

Ahah. No. All the infinities involved are the same size. Infinity doesn't change size simply by multiplying it by something or adding something to it. You can get different sizes of infinity, but not in this scenario.

Um...yes they do it's basic calculus

You're not going at this right. It's not infinite just as a line on the surface of a sphere. It just appears so. Just because you can travel an infinite distance doesn't make the space infinitive.

Like a mobious strip! (Yay! I contributed.)

 

[BioHazardMan]

Bertrand Russell's Barber Paradox

Suppose there is a town with just one male barber; and that every man in the town keeps himself clean-shaven: some by shaving themselves, some by attending the barber. It seems reasonable to imagine that the barber obeys the following rule: He shaves all and only those men in town who do not shave themselves.

Does the barber shave himself?

 

[Shoqiyqa]

My favorite is not really a paradox, but statistics that blows your mind.

Imagine you are in a contest where you can win a car. All you need to do is to chose the right panel - you've got three panels to chose from. Once you point at one panel, someone (who knows behind which panel the car is) reveals one of the other two panels. Now you can either stick to the panel you've selected originaly, or select the remaining one. Which one will you chose?

We have had this thread already. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.199542-Poll-Lets-make-a-Deal-Statistics-and-math-question-Most-people-get-this-wrong?page=1] You switch.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

OK some other not-realy-a-paradox, but a mathematical weirdness:

Three people enter a motel and request a room. The room costs 30 dollars, so every guest pays 10 dollars.

In the morning, the hotel manager realizes the room actually costs only 25 dollars. Being unable to split 5 dollars evenly, he decided to give back 3 dollars to the guest (1 to each guest) and he kept the other 2.

So, each guest basically paid 9 dollars.

That's 3 x 9 = 27 dollars paid by guests.

The manager kept 2 dollars. 27 + 2 = 29 dollars.

Where is the missing dollar?

Second to last line's the decoy.

27 - 2 = 25, the cost of the room. You've put the 2 he kept on the wrong side of the 27 they paid. It's the difference between what they paid and what he should have charged, not the difference between what he did charge and what they paid.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

You've got a sword that can penetrate any shield and a shield invincible to any sword or sharp object. What happens when your special sword hits your special shield?

The sword turns into a blunt bullet and penetrates the shield ... or penetrates the shield but does not conquer or subdue it.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

I like the paradox of separation.

one way of describing it goes something like this. Draw two dots on a new piece of paper, having done so you can see that the dots are separate. However the dots are only separated by the space on the paper and they are on the same piece of paper, therefore they are still connected by that which separates them.

In sociology we talk about this as a reason as to why all notions of binary opposition in humans (black vs white thinking) are wrong. As difference can only be talked about in relation to similarity as you can only say something is different if you have something to compare it to, a similar context thus in truth all things in the realm of the social are similar but only by degree's.

..... and that's why sociology doesn't get to hang out in the science department with the biologists, chemists, physicists and programmers any more.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

"All Cretans are liars" or something like that

It has to be a Cretan who say it lol

"All Cretins always lie," said the Cretin (and there's the origin of the insult, folks, Greek mainlander discrimination against islanders). The weakness here is that people assume that:

if it's true, then he must be lying;
if he's lying, it's not true;
if it's not true, then no Cretin ever lies;
if no Cretin ever lies, it's true

... and so on in an infinite loop, but line three is crud. "Some Cretins sometimes lie." Yes, he was lying, but that doesn't mean no Cretin ever lies.

As for the arrow not changing shape or length or whatever in the air ...

 

[Shoqiyqa]

Given the vast universe it's virtually impossible that there aren't several species that have figured out how to traverse between galaxies. It is also near impossible that they wouldn't at least want some data on other species. It is also near impossible that at least one of them wouldn't want to either enslave us or befriend us.

So where the fuck are they?

They have a lot of planets to explore, maybe they just haven't made it here. Or they have seen how destructive we are now and are slightly afraid

Second spoiler tag: "The Gift Of Mercy" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.211546-The-scary-thread-76-days?page=23#8651038]

Please read the entire thread from beginning to end, including opening all spoiler tags and watching all videos, before posting to it. We wouldn't want any repeats, now, would we?

 

[FalloutJack]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

 

[bombadilillo]

I'm not sure if this counts as a paradox or not, but it's an interesting thought

Lets say you have a boat. As parts of the boat wear out, you replace them with new parts. Eventually, you have replaced every part of the boat. Is it still the same boat?

Better yet.
your body now doesn't have any of the molecules left from when you were born.
Are you still you?

Well your neurons in your central nervous system are the same for your whole life, and its generally considered to be the important bit.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

Whatever the joke is, It's not very obvious. Plus the pictures small. What am I looking at?

Also, is THAT the joke? That people try to find something? Cause that's super lame.

 

[FalloutJack]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

Whatever the joke is, It's not very obvious. Plus the pictures small. What am I looking at?

Also, is THAT the joke? That people try to find something? Cause that's super lame.

Gah, there's always someone...

It's a PAIR OF DOCKS.

*Shakes head*

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

Whatever the joke is, It's not very obvious. Plus the pictures small. What am I looking at?

Also, is THAT the joke? That people try to find something? Cause that's super lame.

Gah, there's always someone...

It's a PAIR OF DOCKS.

*Shakes head*

Well that was ambiguous. Are you saying that I got it right? Or that someone always guesses that even though it's wrong?
I still don't see anything Paradoxical about this picture...

 

[Condor219]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

Whatever the joke is, It's not very obvious. Plus the pictures small. What am I looking at?

Also, is THAT the joke? That people try to find something? Cause that's super lame.

Gah, there's always someone...

It's a PAIR OF DOCKS.

*Shakes head*

Well that was ambiguous. Are you saying that I got it right? Or that someone always guesses that even though it's wrong?
I still don't see anything Paradoxical about this picture...

Please tell be that you were being sarcastic.

Oh, and FalloutJack, it's a nice effort, but I can only respond to that pun with this.

 

[FalloutJack]

I've done this joke before. It's still funny as hell.

Whatever the joke is, It's not very obvious. Plus the pictures small. What am I looking at?

Also, is THAT the joke? That people try to find something? Cause that's super lame.

Gah, there's always someone...

It's a PAIR OF DOCKS.

*Shakes head*

Well that was ambiguous. Are you saying that I got it right? Or that someone always guesses that even though it's wrong?
I still don't see anything Paradoxical about this picture...

Please tell be that you were being sarcastic.

Oh, and FalloutJack, it's a nice effort, but I can only respond to that pun with this.

That's how I feel about the guy who doesn't even get it.

 

[ManOwaRrior]

Can omni-potent god (an all powerful god) create a stone which he cannot lift.

If he can't create it then he isn't all powerful.

If he creates it but then is unable to lift it he still isn't all powerful.

Not a paradox, you just prooved the lack of existence of an Omni-potent God.

No, an omni-potent God could still exist, he would be able to defy logic.
So he could in fact create this stone. And he could still lift it. While this would be logically impossible, if he is omni-potent, he can do it regardless.

No, it just means an Omni Potent God wouldn't exist because it would defy logic.

Intresting... so you say, that logic is the be all end all law, that cannot be overcome by anything?
That something, that defys logic, cannot exist?
Well, a paradox defys logic, and yet it does exist. So that would mean, that an omni-potent god could be a paradox. Which in turn makes perfect sense, since an omni-potent god could be everything he wants to be^^

But just out of curiosity, what is your (or anyones) stand on the question, whether or not logic is this one absolute law, that even a god would have to obey? I don't think so, but I can see why others would.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Can omni-potent god (an all powerful god) create a stone which he cannot lift.

If he can't create it then he isn't all powerful.

If he creates it but then is unable to lift it he still isn't all powerful.

Not a paradox, you just prooved the lack of existence of an Omni-potent God.

No, an omni-potent God could still exist, he would be able to defy logic.
So he could in fact create this stone. And he could still lift it. While this would be logically impossible, if he is omni-potent, he can do it regardless.

No, it just means an Omni Potent God wouldn't exist because it would defy logic.

Intresting... so you say, that logic is the be all end all law, that cannot be overcome by anything?
That something, that defys logic, cannot exist?
Well, a paradox defys logic, and yet it does exist. So that would mean, that an omni-potent god could be a paradox. Which in turn makes perfect sense, since an omni-potent god could be everything he wants to be^^

But just out of curiosity, what is your (or anyones) stand on the question, whether or not logic is this one absolute law, that even a god would have to obey? I don't think so, but I can see why others would.

Not all logic is known, all logic never will be know (I think, at least) - there needs to be logic in order to prove anything, I know I'm contradicting my statement, but here I say: All Paradoxes can be proved and "worked out" as it were (I apologise if this doesn't make too much sense, I have trouble explaining things - I know what I mean in my mind at least! xD).