Zeno’s Paradox: A Deep dive
Well, hello there, dear reader! I see that you’re a little low on a much-needed dose of Existential Crisis™, and that is precisely what I have in store for you. Let me acquaint you with a Greek philosopher- one known for concocting paradoxes of much intrigue.
Zeno of Elea was a famed philosopher, notorious for his paradoxes; one of which was dubbed the “Dichotomy Paradox”. Zeno theorized that if one were to travel towards a point, they’d take a finite amount of time to cover half the distance, the next half, and so on and so forth. This ultimately meant that a person would have to reach infinite such “half-points” to ever get to the end: meaning, they’d never be able to get there at all.
Stretching out this thought experiment to a more abstract one allows us to consider “goals’’. An average college student might be rather familiar with this notion- what with parents and their expectations, or the goal-driven society we live in: where checking off the next thing on that bucket list seems to be celebrated. Passing an entrance exam with an appearance-worthy score? Check. Getting into college? Check. Scoring a decent enough CGPA? Check. With the paradox in mind, these “checkpoints’’ seem meaningless.
In the larger scheme of things, no matter how many milestones we reach, the ultimate end will always be a hair’s width away. Seems unfair, doesn’t it?
Now, hold on a second- this does seem like a rather pessimistic view on life. Yet, this approach allows us to rethink the amount of value we as humans place on “purpose”. We’re constantly working towards nothingness, celebrating at every rung of the ladder as it leads us into an almost Tartarus-like void. Here, we pose a question. Do eternal things truly have meaning, as such?
We’re surrounded by abstractions; endless infinities stretching out into time- and one of them is space. Indeed, space has been an object of fascination to us humans for aeons- if the countless movies and books are anything to go by. The effort to make breakthroughs in an attempt to grasp at something so fathomless, with as much perseverance as it has had, is something only a homo sapien would think of doing. Galileo’s telescope set sight upon not just Jupiter’s moons, but a vast multitude of possibility; something so gargantuan that our minds couldn’t possibly wrap around the sheer meaning of it.
Of course, we’ve seen huge steps towards this endeavour to take on the cosmic universe. Laika became the first dog to be sent into orbit, and soon after, humans followed. Outer space first saw Yuri Gagarin- and then, so much more- with full crew space missions, artificial satellites, and Mars probes. On the flip side, what about all the failures we’ve seen? The Challenger disaster was catastrophic, resulting in a hiatus and losing several talented cosmonauts. It is a painful mark in history even to this day, especially when you consider the years of effort and tremendous progress made by each astronaut as part of their previous missions, only to have their next mission rob that from them.
In light of how infinite space and time is, all of these seem like insignificant blips in the continuum- the wins and losses being almost indistinguishable.
Now, dear reader, I ask you to consider the stark parallels between space research and the “Dichotomy”. Over the years, we’ve hit several “half-points”; so many achievements, and yet- the end never seems in sight.
Here, I bring up Aristotle’s counter to Zeno’s almost impossible theory- the flaw that the travel to each half point was in fact, finite. Zeno talks of a “potential infinite”, placing importance on these “instants” of time reached- when time is a stretch, rather than a physical point that can be grasped. Expanding this inference to a more abstract one, allows us to realize that placing meaning on these “goals” seems to be a fallacious idea.
In a society like ours, where we place so much meaning on getting to the next checkpoint, the value of the journey often is lost.
As I bring up our talks on space missions, I’d like to remind you that we’ve been looking at this topic rather subjectively. A huge portion of my interpretation is ridden with pessimism, which is why I shall remind you that objectivity is what gives achievements their value. The knowledge and scientific progress we have gained over time are irrefutable- and the idea that this is worthless against a “potential infinite” of space is an inaccuracy. Yes, I am your resident all-knowing voice-in-the-void, but I must make err for you, the human to learn.
Hence, reader- I ask of you to remind yourself of the objective meaning of all that you have achieved. As a living, breathing human, your life is a tapestry- with every little accomplishment you’ve earned weaved into it. The triumphs and failures alike add to every ridge or tuft in your own unique weave. The deep dive you did on Cleopatra’s reign at 3 AM, will contribute just as tangibly as a skill you took three years to learn. Life does seem fathomless, especially when you regard yourself with the millions of organisms you share the world with, and the universe you live within. Yet, grounding yourself to what’s important is crucial- and that’s the friends we made along the way.
After all, “Humanity’s deepest desire for knowledge is justification enough for our continuing quest.”, as Stephen Hawking says, and I quote.
And this quest shall continue.
With that, dear reader- I bid you adieu.
