Paradoxes: It is? But it is not. Yet it is.
To begin with, what is a paradox? A paradox is anything that contradicts itself. It may be a statement or an event. They have been around since the time of Ancient Greeks and have presented the world with some really great dilemmas. Many logicians have been trying to find a loophole in these paradoxes for years. They either prove that the events mentioned are possible or the paradox is built on flawed thinking.
It is a very crucial field of advanced mathematics and theoretical physics. If logicians figure out the loophole in some of these paradoxes, we might actually be able to do time travel. Astonishing isn’t it? So let us look into some really famous paradoxes, you might even know some of them.
1.Chicken or the Egg
This is a very famous paradox and we all come across it. What came first, the chicken or the egg? If you say egg, then from where did it pop out? If you say chicken, then, well, what was chicken born out of, if not the egg?
2. Epimenides’ Paradox
The name sounds complicated, doesn’t it? He was a Cretan who gave us a poem which was paradoxical. But a simple version of that was given by Gregory House is “Everybody lies”. If Mr.House says everybody lies, then he too would be lying. That suggests that the statement “Everybody lies” is false. That means everybody is telling the truth, which means House was telling the truth and voila! A paradox.
3. The Grandfather Paradox
This paradox is about time travel. Suppose you travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he married your grandmother, then your father would not be born, hence you wouldn’t be born. So you couldn’t possibly travel back in time to kill your Grandfather in the first place. Two hypothesis were proposed to get out of this loop.
Time Line Protection hypothesis
According to this hypothesis, if you travel back to kill your grandfather, it wouldn’t be possible. If you shoot him, the bullets will be blank. He would be practically indestructible , just to protect the time line and keep the event from changing
Multiple Universes Hypothesis
According to this , you could travel back in time and kill your grandfather. But when you returned to the present, you wouldn’t exist that is there would be no one existing with your name or identity. Thus, creating a new parallel universe or an alternate timeline where your father and you don’t exist.
4. Bootstrap Paradox
According to this paradox, if an object, person or piece of information is sent back in time, then an infinite loop will be created and it’s origin would never be known making the object not exist. Let’s see an example. If the inventor of the time machine went back in time and gave his past self the time machine, then he would’ve created the time machine much before he actually did, thus creating a loop.
5. Let’s Kill Hitler Paradox
Everyone is familiar with Hitler. So if you could travel back in time to kill him before he could do any damage, you would do it. But there is a paradox involved here. If you travel back and kill hitler, then all his actions would not have happened, so there would be no reason for you to travel back in time in the first place to kill him. Thus, hitler would still exist and the loop would continue.
6. Buridan’s Ass Paradox
This is a paradox associated with human indecisiveness. It says that if an ass (a donkey) is placed between two piles of hay, equal in size, places on equal distances from him, then the ass would never be able to decide which pile to go to and die of hunger.
7. Unexpected Hanging Paradox
This is a specific case paradox. A judge tells a condemned prisoner that he will be executed in the next week on a weekday but the execution will be a surprise for him. The prisoner thought and conclude that he wouldn’t be executed. If he were executed on a Friday, then it wouldn’t be a surprise , since he wasn’t executed on the days before. Hence he couldn’t be executed on a Friday. If the execution was on Thursday then he wouldn’t be surprised because he wasn’t executed on the days before. The same conclusion was derived for the other days as well. He was executed on Wednesday and it was a surprise for him as it contradicted all his assumptions.
8. Sorites’ Paradox
This paradox is applied to a heap of sand. Suppose there is a heap of sand. If one grain is removed, it still is a heap. But if the process is repeated until one grain remains, it is no longer a heap but a grain of sand. It contradicts the statement that if a grain is removed from a heap, it still is a heap.
9. Theseus Paradox
If all parts of the object have been replaces, then is it still the same object or a different one? Suppose there is a ship. All its parts have been replaced at some or the other point of time, then is the ship still the same? There, yet another paradox to argue over.
There are tons of other paradoxes, but these are the most interesting and famous ones.I'll probably make another post in the near future or the future future. Drop me a mail about the paradoxes you find interesting and suggestions for the future future post. :)
The images belong to their respective owner. Sorry, I couldn't find the links for the same.