One of the fantastic things discovered quite some time ago in mathematics is called Russell’s Paradox, or the Russell-Zermelo paradox which involved quite some back-and forth in movie-worthy dusty parlors at the turn of the century in England and Germany, involving names like Bertrand, Cesare Burali-Forti, Schröder, Cantor, and personal favorite “Gottlob Frege”. They don’t name them like that anymore. We’ve been discussing a kind of similar paradox for some time, about Covid. Fascinating!
Consider making a BigList list of all things which are lists: Shopping list, Guest list, Menus, and so on. Your BigList, of course, is also on your list, because it’s a list. Consider now a StrangeList of things which do not include themselves on a list. Question: Is StrangeList on it’s own list? Of course if it is then it’s instantly something which doesn’t include itself, so its out, while vice-versa gets in a twist. Lovely! That’s the paradox.
Very Alice in Wonderland.
It did many things when discovered, among which is the discovery that the system of logic we use if consistent, is incomplete — you can’t describe everything in logic. Statements can be made freely which are not provable (such as this paradox), so we can’t depend on logic to consistently render a description of… logic. Frightening in some ways but most people like you and me don't worry about such profound things. I certainly don’t.
What the hell does this have to do with Covid.
When I first heard of Covid Passports, it reminded me tremendously of the Russell-Zermelo paradox stated like this.
The instant you have a Covid Passport, it’s completely irrelevant to your health. Isn’t that rich? If you don’t have a passport, that’s when it’s incredibly important to your health.
Imagine an event, let’s say a basketball game, which forbids people to enter without the passport.
The paradox, is that precisely the people who are allowed entry, with the passport, are exactly the people for which the passport has absolutely no value to their personal health in the event. The people who are denied entry without a passport, because they would have no immunity, are exactly the only people who would be protected by a passport.
So, the list of people for which covid passports are essential, wouldn’t include people with covid passports.
Does the list of things which are important about Covid passports include itself, so to speak?
Enjoy Thursday evening.
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