Monday, September 17, 2007

Why Zeno effect?

From Mrs. Teacher's Science Class:

"The very nature of quantum physics is counterintuitive to conventional thinking. Among the many bizarre characteristics is the quantum Zeno paradox, an odd mathematical result that is being debated to this day. Assuming an unstable quantum state, intuition would dictate that eventually, the system will irreversibly decay in certain amount of time, defined as the Zeno time. However if the system is measured in a period shorter than the Zeno time, then the wave function of the system will repeatedly collapse before decay."

I suppose I like the fact that Zeno's paradox has a quantum analog. The pretentious part of me likes to think that my life is equally paradoxical, that I "will repeatedly collapse before decay."

But, more to the point, I like the fact that "Zeno of Elea" was known as the inventor of the dialectic. I call one of my tattoos "the dialectic."  (It looks something like this:  -)(- .)  Now (still!) paradox, dialectic, negative capability, incommensurability, aporia, and the like are what motivate me. It all comes down to doubt. We all believe in something, right? But why?

I am not the first to notice the richness of the Zeno metaphor.  I loved the feints and displacements in Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno, which I read in college.

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