[Ron] stop it! you're killin me [Arlo] How about "my goal is to ensure that all of my goals fail"? I'd need to succeed at at least one goal, for this particular goal to fail, otherwise, failing at every other goal ensures this one succeeds.
These types of paradoxes are self-reference paradoxes, "the set of all sets" contains itself, and sometimes these are "normal" but any symbolic system capable of such representations are open to this style of paradox. Bertrand Russell's is one of the more well-know, from Wikipedia. "Let us call a set "abnormal" if it is a member of itself, and "normal" otherwise. For example, take the set of all squares. That set is not itself a square, and therefore is not a member of the set of all squares. So it is "normal". On the other hand, if we take the complementary set that contains all non-squares, that set is itself not a square and so should be one of its own members. It is "abnormal". Now we consider the set of all normal sets, R. Attempting to determine whether R is normal or abnormal is impossible: If R were a normal set, it would be contained in the set of normal sets (itself), and therefore be abnormal; and if it were abnormal, it would not be contained in the set of normal sets (itself), and therefore be normal. This leads to the conclusion that R is both normal and abnormal: Russell's paradox." (Wikipedia) The paradox you presented Platt is a variation of this theme. While Platt is off trying to pawn such linguistic paradox off as Revelation, I instead find them a pointing reminder of the limits of what can be said. Like koans, they server as a "slap" to those too caught up in their expectations of what symbolic representation offers. "There is an exception to every rule." <-- what about that one? Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way. Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to. Alice: Oh, it really doesn't matter, as long as... Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn't matter which way you go. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
