thinking about paradoxes at 2am

conversations with ChatGPT and beyond

Jun 13, 2024

i asked ChatGPT to tell me about some of her favourite paradoxes and had a mind bending experience, 10/10 would recommend if you’re ever chilling at 2am [or anytime] and you want your brain to audition for a gymnastics tournament that nobody has ever heard of. now, i’m here to report my findings!!

this is how Wikipedia defines a paradox:

A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion.A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites".

ok so now what??

let’s get into some examples, if u dare..

THE SHIP OF THESEUS PARADOX

what is it: imagine a ship that has all its components replaced one by one. at what point, if any, does it stop being the same ship? or is it still the same ship?

to add another layer to this, imagine all of the parts from the original ship actually went towards building another ship. is that second ship the original ship.. or the first one? u feel me?

my thoughts: i think the point of paradoxes like this is there is no correct answer and instead of searching for right/wrong (as the brain tends to do almost immediately)(hello i’m a brain i love thinking in black and white terms).. instead of the linear, what if we searched for discussions? around a campfire like Neanderthals did, just chatting about ideas and never knowing the answer?

anyways i immediately thought that the original ship is still the same ship. even though none of its individual components remain the same, it retains its history and energy and its identity.. like its ghost is there in some way.

i gave the other option a fair shot, like ok this other ship now has ALL of the original ship’s parts. is this one now the OG ship?? in my opinion, no.. because i feel like identity is more about experiences and history than simply a sum of physical parts. i think the questions around identity are what makes this paradox fun to ponder.

what do you think?

THE GRANDFATHER PARADOX:

what is it: if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather before your parent was conceived, you would never have been born to go back and kill your grandfather?

my thoughts: ouchie! okay!! the contradictions are wild with this and it hurts a little bit to think about. so time travel in general is a mind-bender.. let’s consider that time travel exists and you could go back in time to do something as horrific as killing someone in your bloodline. what would happen?

i think it’s plausible that you’d still be born, only if the time-travel ignites a brand new, fresh timeline separate from the current one. like a parallel universe. because so many things would change even if something minor shifts (the butterfly effect) that you couldn’t find your way “back” to your original existence and wouldn’t be born if there’s only that 1 timeline. possibly there would be multiple existences then.. one for each thing that is changed while you’re traveling through the past and meddling with things.

thoughts??

~~[IF YOU’RE STILL READING THIS I LOVE YOU ROMANTICALLY]~~

last one!! i actually first heard of this paradox through the poetry of Savannah Brown, as it’s the title of a poem in her newest collection, Closer Baby Closer [which i highly recommend reading] ✨

OLBER’S PARADOX

what is it: also known as the dark night paradox, this states that a static, infinitely old universe with an infinite number of stars distributed in an infinitely large space would be bright rather than dark.

my thoughts: as a poet myself, i discovered gleefully that it was actually Edgar Allan Poe who suggested that the finite age of the universe resolves the paradox, because the speed of light is also finite.. so logically only a certain number of stars can be observed from Earth. i personally don’t know if this is true or not since i do not have a degree in astronomy/physics/anything at all. i am merely a poet, but Poe’s take makes sense to me.

if we’re only ever seeing the light from stars that died relatively recently (relative to space-time haha) and are also close enough to us that we can view them.. then it makes sense to me that the night sky would be primarily dark. though it’s fun to picture a luminous sky at night, all white and twinkling, swirling cosmos of mysterious and effervescent origins. i do prefer a dark sky.. with all the glorious contrast we get to drink with our eyes.

**NASA Hubble image of an emission nebula NGC 2313**

༘⋆₊ ⊹★🔭๋࣭ ⋆｡˚༘⋆₊ ⊹★🔭๋࣭ ⋆｡˚༘⋆₊ ⊹★🔭๋࣭

this is Savannah’s poem on Olber’s Paradox:

i love Savannah Brown i want to be her when i grow up [she's younger than me]

thank you for coming along on this possibly incoherent brain adventure, where we have explored some intricate and/or fascinating ideas together.. my main intention was to spark thought-trains & conversation.. so let me know your thoughts if you feel compelled! do you know of any fun paradoxes not mentioned here?

before i kiss you goodnight on the forehead [consensually/with permission] i want to leave you with this poem & collage cluster that i made in April. it isn’t about a paradox, but a theory.. the simulation theory to be specific: