Ventures into the metaphysical

Current mood: Philosophical
Current music: The chanting of monks on a mountainside. No, not really

I just spotted the following statement on a form:

"Any information below this line is invalid"

This statement is then followed by a line. Having a somewhat antagonistic turn of mind, I felt compelled to mentally add to it:

Any information below this line is invalid
__________________________________________
Any information above this line is invalid

Hehehe. You have to take sides - Top or Bottom? Which is right?

Now change the scenario slightly. Take a look at the following:

Any information below this line is untrue
_________________________________________
Any information above this line is true

Ah, it's obvious - Top is true, Bottom is untrue. Right?

Wrong. You might have to think it through a bit but these two statements, apparently in agreement, actually set up a paradox.

No, no, not a pair of ducks! Go away, you two, this ain't your cue. As I was saying... A paradox is a self-contradictory statement or situation, which doesn't make sense when you follow perfectly logical deductions. So if you saw the following sign...


...would you turn right or left? It's the kind of sign you would find particularly unhelpful if you were stuck in a maze, or perhaps a labyrinthine university.

Let's move on from paradoxes to the nature of time and existence. Because once upon a time I wrote upon a banana. (This can be quietly amusing once in a while, although if you do this too often you may well be accused of insanity. Be sure to use a biro as a fountain pen would just make a mess.) And I wrote:

"By the time you read this, this banana will NO LONGER EXIST."

I then proceeded to take a photo of the declarative banana before eating it (the banana, not the photo, you ninny).
I wrote the statement whilst the banana was still in existence, aware that its future existence was likely to be rather brief. But now, in the future, it is the image of the banana that remains, as does the recollection of its predicted fate - long after the banana is gone...

Mmm. Deep.

You may think of the above as an interesting metaphor for why so many people want to be celebrities (fame, fortune and the kind of immortality found in everlasting glory), or just a rather silly exercise involving graffiti-ed tropical fruit. Either way, I got a tasty banana and a story out of it!

All right then, one last thing while I'm still feeling philosophical. Whilst logical, rational thought is great, and humankind wouldn't have gotten further than gathering nuts and berries without it, it does have its limitations. For example, I have made a perfectly logical conclusion from two solid facts:

1. Ducks are yellow.
2. Bananas are yellow.

Therefore: Ducks are bananas.

Uh - are they? That doesn't seem quite right...

What was wrong with my reasoning? I made an incorrect assumption that ducks and bananas are both "equivalent" to yellow, which is obviously nonsense. However, that's just the kind of conclusion a primitive computer might come up with, due to limited facts. It's not possible to account for every single fact so we have to approximate, guess, or just make the darn thing up. I suppose that's what computer modelling is all about.

It's just as well that we're not logical thinking machines that think only in yes/no. Without human creativity and ingenuity we'd still be wondering why ducks don't grow on trees, and eating roast bananas stuffed with banana for our dinner. Oh, yummy.

Anyway, if you liked this blog entry, you might want to consider reading '101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life' by Roger-Pol Droit. It's full of strange things you can do to make yourself think, such as telephoning at random or taking the Tube without going anywhere. My personal favourites are 'No. 16: Dream of all the places in the world' and 'No. 50: Become music'. As far as I recall, though, none of the experiments involved scribbling on bananas. Maybe I should send a suggestion to the author...

PS I am happy to announce that all of the pictures/photos adorning this entry are entirely original, i.e. I made them all by myself, and didn't pinch 'em off the Net. Yay! Which means that if, in turn, you decide to borrow one of them, you'd have to ask me first, and quote me as the creator. Although frankly, just why anyone else would want a picture of Ducks = Bananas is quite beyond me...