Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!husc6!m2c!wpi!regnery From: regnery@wpi.wpi.edu (George Regnery) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: approaching "C" Summary: Impossible Message-ID: <729@wpi.WPI.EDU> Date: 9 Feb 89 16:16:51 GMT References: <3316@xyzzy.UUCP> Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass. Lines: 30 In article <3316@xyzzy.UUCP>, throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop) writes: > > Finally, there are things like "it is impossible to make a heavier > than air flying machine", or "it is impossible to travel faster than > 10mph by rail", or other examples. These merely involve things that > haven't been done yet. There is no particular well-founded model of > the situation that forbids the situation. Haven't been done yet? Where do you live? Seriously, the above statements are just a misuse of the word impossible. Impossiblility, to most people, denotes something that can not ever be done under any circumstances. There are some things that can't be done now, yet aren't impossible (such as space travel to Mars or Jupiter). Then there are things that are just impossible now, and always will be, like the things you mentioned such as squaring a circle. Impossible is defined as something that will never be able to be done under any circumstances. What if you said the circumstances were a situation where only impossible things sould be done? I think the book Godel, Escher, Bach talks about impossibility, but i'm not sure... It is an interesting book though. . ----George Regnery -- George M. Regnery ! Worcester ! Albedo 0.39 ! Going on means regnery@wpi.wpi.edu OR ! Polytechnic ! --Vangelis ! going far. Going regnery@wpi.bitnet ! Institute ! (a good album) ! far means returning. CompuServe: 73300,3655 ! (Worc, Mass.) ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=! --Tao Te Ching