# Is anything possible? If so, is it a paradox?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [September 17, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941 "2012-09-17T04:09:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/1 "2012-09-17T04:09:34Z")
I was having a debate with a friend of mine. He told me that anything was possible, that it had a non-zero percent chance of happening. I told him that if that was true, it’s possible that he’s wrong, that perhaps nothing was possible or only certain thing were possible while other were not. He agreed. I said that it sounded paradoxical, but he told me that this wasn’t a paradox. At this point I lost him, so I look for the teeming millions help. Is anything possible? If so, is it a paradox?
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### Author:  [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/2 "2012-09-17T04:11:30Z")
No, everything is not possible, so it is not a paradox.
Ex: I will not ever sprout wings and fly. One is all it takes to knock out “everything”.
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### Author:  [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/3 "2012-09-17T04:14:59Z")
> [@Lanzy](#):
>
> No, everything is not possible, so it is not a paradox.
>
> Ex: I will not ever sprout wings and fly. One is all it takes to knock out “everything”.
He would say that it is possible that you will and that you can always be mistaken…
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### Author:  [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/4 "2012-09-17T04:22:50Z")
> [@copperwindow](#):
>
> He would say that it is possible that you will and that you can always be mistaken…
Then “he” is a dumbass.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/5 "2012-09-17T04:23:34Z")
> [@Lanzy](#):
>
> No, everything is not possible, so it is not a paradox.
>
> Ex: I will not ever sprout wings and fly. One is all it takes to knock out “everything”.
I think if you want to get technical, there is a negligible chance (even lower than “LHC will create a black hole” odds – so close to zero it may as well be zero) with various facets of particle physics that could cause this specific thing to happen.
But in general, no, that which violates physics can’t happen so not anything is possible.
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### Author:  [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/6 "2012-09-17T04:35:13Z")
> [@Jragon](#):
>
> I think if you want to get technical, there is a negligible chance (even lower than “LHC will create a black hole” odds – so close to zero it may as well be zero) with various facets of particle physics that could cause this specific thing to happen.
>
> But in general, no, that which violates physics can’t happen so not anything is possible.
He was talking in terms of there being a chance that “LHC will create a black hole” odds.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/7 "2012-09-17T04:38:08Z")
> [@copperwindow](#):
>
> He was talking in terms of there being a chance that “LHC will create a black hole” odds.
Well, which is why I gave the caveat that that which violates physics is inherently impossible. I was just saying that that specific case is possible with minute odds.
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### Author:  [@copperwindow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/copperwindow)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/8 "2012-09-17T05:01:08Z")
> [@Jragon](#):
>
> Well, which is why I gave the caveat that that which violates physics is inherently impossible. I was just saying that that specific case is possible with minute odds.
Well, this doesn’t answer my question.
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### Author:  [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/9 "2012-09-17T05:04:09Z")
> [@copperwindow](#):
>
> Well, this doesn’t answer my question.
Yes it does, that which violates physics is impossible, therefore not anything is possible. Then there is no paradox.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/10 "2012-09-17T05:55:42Z")
This is a classic among sophomore philosophy students.
“It is possible…even though hugely unlikely…that a fair and honest roulette wheel will turn up hitting number 21 (red) five hundred times in a row.”
In some sort of pure abstract hypothetical theory, maybe it is possible. But it won’t happen. Mark this well: it will not happen. And that which will not happen isn’t “possible” in a pragmatic sense. It isn’t meaningfully possible.
In physics and thermodynamics, it is “possible” that all the molecules of air in the room will rush over to one corner, leaving a soft and very temporary vacuum. Again, this will not happen. The possibility is not only remote; it is (pardon the play on words) vacuous.
A solid gold meteorite might land in my back yard. A group of sunspots might form the Coca Cola logo. A cluster of minor earthquakes might signal “What Hath God Wrought” in Morse Code.
Rush Limbaugh might say something sensible.
Not gonna happen.
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### Author:  [@TATG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TATG)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/11 "2012-09-17T06:55:15Z")
> [@copperwindow](#):
>
> I told him that if that was true, it’s possible that he’s wrong, that perhaps nothing was possible or only certain thing were possible while other were not. He agreed. I said that it sounded paradoxical, but he told me that this wasn’t a paradox.
“It is possible that I am wrong, but not actually the case that I am wrong.” If “possible” is some sort of epistemic possibility, then it looks paradoxical. If “possible” is just picking out all the possible worlds, including ways the world isn’t, then it might not be paradoxical.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/12 "2012-09-17T07:15:16Z")
It is not possible that everything is possible, because some possibilities contradict others.
For example, it is not possible that there are blue cows and _no_ blue cows.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/13 "2012-09-17T08:31:58Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> A group of sunspots might form the Coca Cola logo.
Don’t give 'em any ideas.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/14 "2012-09-17T09:07:37Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> This is a classic among sophomore philosophy students.
>
> “It is possible…even though hugely unlikely…that a fair and honest roulette wheel will turn up hitting number 21 (red) five hundred times in a row.”
>
> In some sort of pure abstract hypothetical theory, maybe it is possible. But it won’t happen. Mark this well: it will not happen. And that which will not happen isn’t “possible” in a pragmatic sense. It isn’t meaningfully possible.
Describing something as “hugely unlikely but possible” is neither misleading nor wrong.
OTOH the concept of “meaningfully/pragmatically possible” could mislead.
While we can stick a pin in a particular event and confidently say “It’ll never happen”, events which seem freaky or astonishingly unlikely to humans happen every day.
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### Author:  [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/15 "2012-09-17T09:30:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> “It is possible…even though hugely unlikely…that a fair and honest roulette wheel will turn up hitting number 21 (red) five hundred times in a row.”
>
> In some sort of pure abstract hypothetical theory, maybe it is possible. But it won’t happen. Mark this well: it will not happen. And that which will not happen isn’t “possible” in a pragmatic sense. It isn’t meaningfully possible.
This is a terrible example.
500 21’s is just as likely as any other sequence of 500 numbers. Your same argument guarantees that no sequence of length 500 is possible.
But then what happens when you play 500 times in a row?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/16 "2012-09-17T12:14:43Z")
> [@Carmady](#):
>
> This is a terrible example.
>
> 500 21’s is just as likely as any other sequence of 500 numbers. Your same argument guarantees that no sequence of length 500 is possible.
>
> But then what happens when you play 500 times in a row?
I don’t think that’s quite right. The same number 500 times in a row is equally likely as _any **specific** sequence of 500 outcomes_, but far less likely than just _500 unspecified outcomes_.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/17 "2012-09-17T13:06:44Z")
It depends on your definition of the word “possible.” But, a definition in which _anything_ is possible doesn’t match the way the word is typically used, and it renders the word useless and meaningless.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/18 "2012-09-17T13:12:23Z")
Note that when people _say_ “anything is possible,” it’s usually a figure of speech. They don’t mean that literally anything is possible, but that one shouldn’t be too quick to reject the idea that certain things could/would happen.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/19 "2012-09-17T18:50:49Z")
Some things are physically possible, but so highly improbable that you can consider them impossible. Such as “sprouting wings and flying away” or your house in Scranton quantum tunneling itself onto a prime beachfront spot in Florida. You would have to wait trillions of years for the probability to approach a trillionth of a percent.
Of course there are biological impossibilities such as jumping to the moon and surviving a nuclear explosion when you’re attached to the bomb casing. Those are really a subset of “physically possible but effectively impossible”.
Other things are truly physically impossible, such as perpetual motion machines and faster than light communication.
Other things are logically impossible, such as existing and not existing at the same time, or being truly omnipotent (can an omnipotent being make a rock so heavy he can’t lift it?).
Of course, lots of people consider the Christian God (among other equally unlikely flavors of deity) to be not only possible, not only probable, but 100% certain, while actually existing in the “physically and logically impossible” categories along with perpetual motion machines and “A and not A”. So if you believe in on of those gods, yeah, anything is possible, including logical impossibilities.
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### Author:  [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-anything-possible-if-so-is-it-a-paradox/634941/20 "2012-09-17T18:55:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> I don’t think that’s quite right. The same number 500 times in a row is equally likely as _any **specific** sequence of 500 outcomes_, but far less likely than just _500 unspecified outcomes_.
You’ll never believe what I saw today. I saw a car with the license plate “H79 Z4L”. I mean, what are the odds of _that_?
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