this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 140 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Are we even sure that Sisyphus can make it to either location? Because in order to reach a destination he must first make it to the halfway point, right? But to make it there, he's gotta make it to that point's halfway point, but before he gets there he need to....

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

He doesn’t actually have to make it there you just have to pull that lever with a force an omnipotent being would have trouble accomplishing

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Just make the lever longer.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Instead, let's aim for double the end location. Then all he has to do is travel half that distance

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

But he must first travel half the distance to that line, leaving us where we started.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It depends on whether Sisyphus has learned calculus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I hear they only have pomegranates in hell. Neither calculus nor gravity for them!

[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Why are these the passengers

oo yeah

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

I think that is how I would be if on a ship.without a computer, going insane.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

... Millennial squats.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Dosen't matters what you choose, given that for sisyphus to reach his destination first he have to reach half, then half of it, then half again and again making movement impossible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Ah, so the answer must be no.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Stands up and walks away

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

"Hołd my limes!" - said Sisyphus

[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes, because he's finally rolling the boulder down a hill.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

it says "towards" so not necessarily downhill

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Not necessarily downhill, but the possibility of downhill is implied. Both of these locations would need to be infinitely high in order for the direction to be uphill.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

AFAIK "infinitely up" is more plausible than "infinitely down", as in most systems you would eventually hit a center-of-mass when going down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

He could be coming in from underground though

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 months ago

you can always add an empty room without changing the total number of rooms, so there should be plenty of room for sisyphus and his boulder at the hotel

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 months ago

He did it. He beat philosophy, this is the question that we've been searching for.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I can get him a room at the Hilbert Hotel, I know a guy.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago

I know aleph-null guys. All in the same family. Parents were lazy and named all their kids after the positive integers. 42 is my best friend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Dude stfu, that was supposed to be between us!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

We won't know until we open the box...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

Sisyphus is both happy and not happy, as long as we don’t ask. But the instant we ask, it’s one or the other

(surely someone already made this joke)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

I feel really sorry for the cleaning crew at the hotel

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

If he goes to the hotel, though, he will get to hear a great story from the owner of the hotel about a once beautiful but now decaying resort that includes a sweeping adventure involving a not-exactly-straight con man, an art theft that was not a theft, Willem Dafoe, and Tilda Swinton.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

Won't the boulder roll back to the intersection anyway?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

When the math teacher does philosophy questions.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It depends on how much it costs to rent a room at the hotel. If it's exorbitantly high, then the hotel can just be knocked down it's no problem, you're only going to risk endangering rich people and so that's a victimless incident. The ship of Theseus on the other hand is most likely manned by ancient Greeks, who while not necessarily the best people by modern standards, are probably mostly poor or even slaves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Right you are! So, how does this help us answer the question?

P.S. Sometimes I wonder how many people on here actually believe that human value is inversely proportional to wealth with no other factors. Repeat it enough times, even as a joke or hyperbole, and you start to believe it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

Sisyphus is rolling his boulder along a track toward the ship of theseus. It has had all its constituent parts removed and replaced and reconstructed along an alternate track. You may pull a lever and divert Sisyphus toward the reconstructed ship. How big of a dick would that make you toward the shipmaker?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Isn't there a version of this with like 5 intersecting thought experiments?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

I hate them all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Not quite what you asked for but here: https://xkcd.com/1531/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

He can't go to the hotel because infinite cannot divided by zero, which is his boulder

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Someone's read Sartre's Huis Clos (⁠ ⁠´⁠◡⁠‿⁠ゝ⁠◡⁠`⁠)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Decent game. 4/5

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

The real question is.... will it take him more than a day to reach either one?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

theseus can eat shit so fuck that nerd.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

death to america

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Na, I am pretty sure that sysiphus sees tracks that are only the result of a shwadow play in a cave and you have to exit the cave to truly experience reality