#Achilles and the tortoise

[askthepastas]

The real reason why Achilles will never reach the tortoise:

Justice is brutal.

[thisismyideaofhumor]

I FINALLY HAVE POLLS!

[cinemaronin]

Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)

アキレスと亀 Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)  directed by Takeshi Kitano

[mremusings]

Conundrums of Consciousness: Navigating the Mind-Bending World of Philosophical Paradoxes

Philosophical paradoxes, challenging perceptions and pushing intellectual boundaries. Explore conundrums such as the Ship of Theseus and Schrödinger's Cat, revealing the complexities of existence and prompting reflection on uncertainty.

Welcome, curious minds and intellectual adventurers, to our exploration of the most intriguing puzzles known to human thought—philosophical paradoxes. These are not just your average brain teasers; they are the mental gymnastics that philosophers, scholars, and the perpetually puzzled have wrestled with for centuries. Imagine trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube in pitch darkness, where each twist…

[mymoviemania-coffee]

Achilles and the Tortoise アキレスと亀 (2008)

[alibonbonn]

Athena’s pet liar

Sketch for a silly little comic I wanna make

[gojoed]

What's the reason. Fess up

would u believe if i said it's because of this

[tortoisebore]

OMG WHAT DID YOU ORDERRR

THESE BABIES RIGHT HERE 👹😛✨😈🤩

i have been eyeballing these for literal YEARS and never bought them, but my favorite off-brand black platform sandals broke last summer so it was time to pull the trigger

[odd-dialectics]

Dialectic 1: Mortal Legacy

Achilles: I wonder what I did in my life. Well, other than being a near-undefeatable greek warrior with a hot boyfriend and the opposite of a foot fetish.

Tortoise: ...I'm sorry, you don't remember?

Achilles: Of course not. I don't exist physically anymore, but only as all of the things people remember of me. Hell, I may not have even existed physically for all I know. It's rather frustrating.

Tortoise: hmmm, sounds a little silly to me. How can you complain about not remembering something you aren't even sure existed? Is it not enough that you exist now as you are? Even those do have existed physically rarely get an opportunity, and for many of them it is their greatest wish.

Achilles: But is this type of existence enough? What if these aren't the things I wanted to be remembered as? What if I was a passionate musician? What if wanted to go into animal husbandry? What if I didn't want to be remembered at all? As a legacy, I have no control of what I am, so how can I be certain this is better than no opportunity at all?

Tortoise: Well that was a steep escalation. So you're saying you would rather not exist? But who would be my Euchre partner on Friday nights?

Achilles: I'm not saying I would rather not exist. And of course I'll continue to be your Euchre partner. I'm just having a tough time. Many people think becoming a legacy as some sort of immortality, a way to control the uncontrollable certainty that is death. But one's legacy is just as uncontrollable.

Tortoise: I can see how such thoughts would be troubling. I would love to give you advice, but I'm not sure what you can do. As you put it, it's rather uncontrollable. I guess the only thing that remains is sit down and do nothing about it.

Achilles: Well hold on. Just because it's uncontrollable doesn't mean I won't do things about it. If I'm going to bother to feel this anguish, I might as well take advantage of it. I can use it for inspiration, creating songs, poetry, and art. I can express myself to others, finding comfort in those who feel similarly. I can listen to them, and maybe remember them as a legacy they would want to be remembered as, even if as a mortal legacy.

Tortoise: I'm not sure how that will help. As fine as though these are, they aren't much compared to the legacy you actually are. But I suppose in doing those these, you are still being something beyond your legacy, which seems much more important to me. I might not become immortal by winning a Euchre hand solo, but I certainly never find myself more alive.

[thoodleoo]

the thing about zeno's paradox about the infinitive divisibility of space is that a lot of people remember the example the involves atalanta but there's also a version that states that achilles can never win a race against a tortoise that he's given a head start to (because he always has to take time to reach where the tortoise was, by which point the tortoise has moved ahead) which gives me the beautiful image of achilles screaming crying throwing up in a rage while a turtle slowly plods ahead of him. just like in the funeral games of patroclus

[shelter-maki0]

Ever since the time travel fiasco caused by his son transformed Harry into Voldemort, he had been having strange dreams from time to time. It was a dream in which a light twinkled in the darkness. The small light that shone in the dream reminded him of the brightness of the morning star.

Harry was beginning to get back to his normal life after the disturbances. Meanwhile, there were rumors within the Ministry that the ghosts living in the Ministry of Magic were beginning to disappear. Harry is going about his daily life, paying no attention to the rumors.

One day, Harry received a request from Hermione. It was a request for a visiting professor at Hogwarts. He was asked to go to Hogwarts, which was still reeling from the death of Craig Bowker, Jr. and to encourage and mentor the students. Naturally, Harry readily agreed to the request.

As Harry began to teach as a visiting professor at Hogwarts, a new incident began to occur at Hogwarts. It was an incident in which the ghosts in the castle were disappearing day by day. In addition to his work as a visiting professor, Harry also began to investigate the case.

At that time, Harry's strange dreams were becoming more eerie by the day. The light twinkling like Venus in the darkness was getting bigger and bigger every day, and it was getting closer and closer to Harry. But even though Harry chased after the light, he never reached it, and the light and Harry were like Achilles and the tortoise.

And the dream of the light took on a familiar and unpleasant feel. The air in the dream was heavy and raw, and Harry's whole body was damp with a disgusting sweat.

And Harry already knew the feel of that dream. It was the feeling of a nightmare that had tormented Harry for years. As more and more ghosts disappeared, the phenomenon gradually turned into a poltergeist and began to affect the students in the castle.

Harry grew weary day by day as the unknown strange phenomena continued, and before he knew it, dark circles severe had formed under his eyes. The fatigue was so great that Harry's memory and consciousness sometimes skipped.

And as usual, when Harry was having nightmares and became be impatient bizarre phenomenon. Finally, Harry called out the name of the nightmare.

"Voldemort, is that you?　Why don't you just show yourself?"

Then, a familiar hissing sound rang out behind Harry's ear, caressing pass the down at his hairline.

"I've been here forever. By your side."

Harry's body was the lure, that connected the pieces of Voldemort's soul from Limbo to this world. The ghostly disappearances that were happening around Harry were caused by Voldemort through his body. It had to do with the bond between the two, which was awakened by their son's case.

The pieces of Voldemort's soul were looking for a way out of the eternal pain that Limbo brought. He then sucks the hazy souls of the dead through Harry's body, building up his strength and looking for a way to return to this world again. And that power was now becoming strong enough to affect the real world as a poltergeist.

Harry had to stop Voldemort again. There was no one else in the world who could fulfill that purpose.

Therefore, Harry decided to negotiate with Voldemort. Harry lent him his body and offered to negotiate with him to leave this world and its people untouched, on the condition that they work together to find a way to collect the souls scattered in Limbo.

During the negotiations, Harry was inside thinking about ultimately wanting Voldemort complete dead, and Voldemort was also planning to look for an opportunity to resurrect himself after collecting his soul.

The two agreed to cooperate, albeit with different agendas, and the negotiations were successful.

Harry then offered himself once again to Voldemort as a medium between Limbo and this world. To protect the wizarding world from the threat of Voldemort, Harry set off with him on a journey to explore the afterlife.

Several decades after the hero of the wizarding world disappeared without a trace, Ginny was raising her children with a single hand. The children have grown up to be fine adults, and Ginny's face has deep wrinkles that remind us of the years that have passed. From time to time, packages arrive at the Potters' house from someone who appears to be Harry, but Harry himself is still missing.

And someone's funeral. As Ginny was attending the funeral, a familiar silhouette caught her eye through the fog.

There stood her husband, who had been missing for decades. But his appearance had not changed since he vanished, and he had not aged a bit. Even more puzzling, he was accompanied by a stranger next to him.

Harry stood next to a young boy, and a tattoo with a familiar design was visible on their entwined hands. The Pale complexion skinned boy's eyes flashed red as he noticed Ginny's gaze and gave her an eerie smile.

The next moment, while Ginny blinked, the two figures were hidden in the fog that drifted over the cemetery. When Ginny walked through the fog to where they were standing, there was no one there anymore, only a chill in the air.

end

＊note "Harry's body was the lure, that connected the pieces of Voldemort's soul from Limbo to this world."

The "lure" is expressed as "呼び水" in Japanese, but I am not sure if "lure" is conveyed in the proper sense.

"呼び水" has the meaning of an inducement and a medium for inviting something. "Priming" as a better choice? I'm sorry if I didn't convey the meaning properly🙇

[lulla-bee]

HC: It's Suguru who knows Achilles and the Tortoise, not Satoru.

A silly collab with @cursorcerer! It's fun to play with these gays

specifically from this scene

[digitaldoeslmk]

Achilles (he IS speedy for a tortoise) says hi!

CKMH: "Ooooughhhh, he's so handsome!!"

jabdjhbawd Achilles is very appreciated!!!!

[ddarker-dreams]

ur mention of neurotransmitters and sympathetic nervous system gave me an intense shock bc i had just studied all that in med school today and was not expectimg to see it in a gojo fic 😭 but oh my god if only words could express how wonderful that was and how much i adored it

thank you very much AAAA <3

i was going to have his dialogue get even more technical with it but i made myself exercise restraint 😔 at first, i wondered if gojo would even be the type to start randomly lecturing people about things, but then i remembered his whole 'achilles and the tortoise' bit. he's a nerd. he wanted to make sure reader understands just how much of her his six eyes ability lets him see.

i've always found the physiological/biological similarities between love and fear interesting. obviously, there are differences, but they share a lot in common too. dilated pupils, increased respiration and heartrate, adrenaline 📈, stuff like that. the idea of a yandere being able to see your limbic system going !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! freaked me out. it's beyond invasive. and, quite frankly, really weird.

[fortunatelyenchantingtaco]

Tbh the way fandom has the view of Gojo as either “hes not that powerful actually” or “he sees everything can do everything including travelling between dimensions” is kinda Gege’s fault? Its funny how jjk provides a lot of details into the nature of the cursed energy but the power level still feels a bit icky. The way Gojo’s powers are explained they are essentially applied mathematics and physics that are, usually, purely theoretical. I fucking hate quantum mechanics but unfortunately for everyone invovlved i am actively studying them so

So like technically he should be able to travel dimensions or into space or into the marianna trench and come out unscathed. The way teleportation works can be compared to the way we now know that black holes dont destroy information, but compress it. Considering the fact that blue and red work on the sheer fact that he creates an empty space and the universe rushes to fill it(which is genuinely a straight up impossible thing to do btw) and vice versa, he does technically have the strenght of a god. We dont even have a full knowledge of how the Six Eyes work, like okay they work thanks to seeing cursed energy. How the fuck then is he reading shit or typing on the phone with the blindfold on? That implies he sees perfectly well everything even if it doesnt have curse energy. Like when you go from his abilities he does seem like he can travel dimensions and whatever else. As fun as the Achilles and tortoise thing is, the fact that he can make it a reality effectively means that there is a shit ton of other things he should be able to do thanks to physics but i guess he needs a weakness (aside from being gay)

Which is FAIR overpowered characters aren’t good for a shonen narrative esp when they are on the side of the protagonist, it just feels sometimes like Gege gave him power over literal physics while forgetting that physics is like the thing that governs all. Genuenly. If you have the power to literally create an imaginary mass you are officially above all of the possible limits of the universe

[conostra]

My thoughts on Gojo vs Sukuna

Spoilers for the Jujutsu Kaisen manga. I’ll be discussing things that happen after the anime’s ending in the Shibuya arc, so be warned.

I was there at ground zero for Chapter 236’s release. I was scrolling Twitter as it all went down. I saw every flame war, every cope, every Gojo fanboy meltdown, every Gojo Pack Smoking gif, and found it all hysterical.

But after watching all of JJK season 2, I decided to read the manga for myself. And I have to say, I absolutely love the ending of the fight. I loved every part of the fight, and although I am quite sad to see Gojo die, I loved the way it was done.

See, as they were fighting, Gojo and Sukuna had inverse goals. Sukuna’s primary goal was to stall the fight through Mahoraga and attempt to, as he put it “create a model with which to violate Satoru Gojo’s inviolability.” Gojo, on the other hand, was attempting to rush Mahoraga in order to deal with Sukuna, who would not be able to best him in an iso so long as Gojo won or tied the Domain Clash, which he actually ended up doing.

Sukuna refers to Gojo’s Infinity as his inviolability, and as explained both in-universe and by Gege Akutami himself, Infinity is the neutral usage of the Limitless technique, allowing Satoru Gojo to essentially halt any thing that has properties of mass, speed, or energy. This is done by forcing the target to effectively cross the infinite divisions of space between itself and Gojo, directly compared to the Achilles and the Tortoise paradox.

Achilles and the Tortoise is a paradox proposed by Zeno, an ancient Greek philosopher. Suppose that a tortoise is placed ten meters in front of the hero Achilles, and Achilles is told to sprint towards the tortoise. The paradox proposes that Achilles, despite running faster than the tortoise, can never actually reach the tortoise, since so long as they both continue motion, by the time Achilles reaches the point in space the turtle had occupied, it will have already moved into another point in space. If Achilles reaches the ten meter mark, the tortoise will have moved a meter. When Achilles moves the meter, the tortoise will have moved 10 centimeters, and so on.

Through these mechanics, and with the power of cursed energy, Satoru Gojo takes the figurative place of the tortoise, and anything incoming takes the place of Achilles.

What I truly enjoy about the fight, however, is that Sukuna proves himself the superior Jujutsu Sorcerer by disproving the paradox, similarly to how modern mathematicians do now: they cut to the chase.

The issue with Zeno’s paradox is that although the subdivisions of each measurement are infinite, the measurements themselves are finite. There is a definitive endpoint. Eventually, so long as the series of infinities they are crossing is convergent (ending at a single point), it will inevitably cease. Despite there being an infinite series of fractions between me and the end of a space 1 meter away from me, there is a defined minimum for the defined distance I can traverse over a defined time, and eventually, that distance will overtake that endpoint so long as the movement continues. Gojo is the equivalent of that endpoint. This is important to remember when looking at how and why Sukuna defeated Gojo.

Mahoraga was obliterated by a Hollow Purple shortly before Gojo’s death. And yet, Mahoraga had found the time to adapt to Gojo’s infinity, at first by “transmuting its own cursed energy.” Sukuna admits this was not something he was able to do, and so he had to wait as Mahoraga continued to adapt.

Mahoraga’s final full adaptations were exactly what Sukuna needed. It was the method through which to bypass Infinity, because Sukuna’s slash would not traverse through any of the points in which Satoru Gojo could halt it. It simply was at all the points along its route at the same time, not targeting Gojo, not triggering Infinity, but simply cleaving through the very space in which Gojo was existing at, and beyond him. The target was the very world itself, existence, all the space behind Gojo, every space Infinity's manipulation occurred in, all at once. And Gojo simply happened to occupy the space the cleave occurred in. As Sukuna himself says, It was different from what he normally does, sending the cleaves flying at others. It’s like the difference between throwing a knife at someone, and materializing the knife into their chest.

I kinda understand why people may be a bit upset- after all, no matter what, this is an anime about the fights. The battle is the point, and chapter 236 is definitely understated in that regard. But I think this was a very cool, very interesting way to handle the kind of powerset that both of these sorcerers possess, and the amount of thought that goes into (some of) the very interesting mechanics that make up JJK’s power system. But I’ve always been a big physics and philosophy dork, so this kinda hits right in my ballpark.

And with that, personally, I enjoyed Chapter 236. I thought it was very emotionally compelling! Gojo, even in death, is the only man who could truly relate to Sukuna, and is his near-equal in Jujutsu as well as, let’s be honest, battle-lust, although mayhaps he is not so bloodthirsty as to consume the flesh of his enemies as well. But people called it just Gojo dickriding Sukuna, and although I can kind of see it, he’s… not exactly wrong with what he says. Sukuna literally couldn’t go all out. There was no point in wasting the cursed energy on useless attacks or revealing his techniques, like the fire he used to kill Mahoraga and Jogo in Shibuya. It would have simply given up some of the aces up his sleeve with no real benefit to him since their boosted strength would not let them bypass Infinity, so why not save that energy for RCT to continue to stall? Limitless put a massive dampener on Sukuna’s ability to really fight Gojo, so it turned into him trying to use his wisdom and experience in the field of Jujutsu to out-strategize him. 

Also, realistically, he wouldn’t have been able to defeat Gojo with any vessel except Megumi, because of ten shadows. The only way he could have really gone all-out with Satoru Gojo was in his Heian Era form, where the extra hands and mouth could have radically changed the way the Domain Clashes went because of his ability to chant and throw out extra hand signs with no downside, and it could have potentially evened out the physical fighting between them- after all, Gojo definitely had the consistent upper hand in close-quarters combat. But later on, in one of the most recent chapters, physically dominates Maki, the undoubtedly best physical fighter the heroes had after Gojo’s death, chaining into a Black Flash. And even still, he was reacting to Gojo's attacks, deftly dodging, blocking, and even grabbing Gojo on several different occassions. If he had multiple limbs with which to fight, or even just defend himself, who knows if Gojo could really have put the beats on him the way he did? Does he still get to chain those black flashes and re-amp his RCT? Does he even get that far?

Throughout the fight, even to the end, the two are trash-talking, joking back and forth, and it is made clear that they regard each other with a level of respect- a level of respect that, for Sukuna, is saved only for those who he can truly regard as incredible sorcerers. And upon Gojo's death, he still laments, not his death, mostly not that he lost, but that he could not quite get through to Sukuna. The point is hammered throughout the fight- there was an ideological conflict superimposed over their physical one. Sukuna, who utilized his strength to dominate, to do everything he wished, to murder and slaughter and eat his way through all the entertainment that is around at a given time, and then move on. Gojo, on the other hand, knows just as well how lonely it is to be at the top. And what did he do? He built an army of comrades, and ushered in the next generation. If he could not look for an equal in strength, he could look for allies, friends, those who followed in his beliefs, those he could help to become as strong as him, or, as he puts it, “strong enough to keep up.” He holds no false hope about his predicament. But he had an inkling of hope that he, perhaps, would be able to show Sukuna not the error of his ways, but that there was a better, maybe even more enjoyable path for him to take, one with more passion and elation and self-reward.

And with that, what does Gojo see when he dies? His friends, those he considered his family. He is in the part of his memory, his life, before everything fell apart. Before the man he loved the most killed a part of him, before all the issues in Shibuya, everything. And he is happy. He is content. And what is Sukuna left with? The fleeting taste of happiness left in his mouths by his victory over the greatest sorcerer of the modern era, and an army to face down, all bearing his same ideals, including the one he hates the most, because he has made him feel, and think about his actions, more than even the late, great, Satoru Gojo- Yuji Itadori.

But, because this is Battle Shonen, everyone is mad that they didn’t get to see the world-splitting slash, or something.